The human species

by A. de Quatrefages

The eminent naturalist who wrote this sentence did not the less seize every occasion which presented itself to point out, in the different human races, what are called simian traits and characters. Is there then in Huxley an unfortunate contradiction? Evidently not. It is in his case, as in that of all true naturalists, only an abuse of language, against which I have already protested. Belonging to the white race, which they naturally regard as the normal type, confining their attention to the very substantial anatomical similarities which exist between the man and the ape, they compare constantly and solely the white on the one hand, with the anthropoid ape on the other. They forget that the oscillations of morphological characters, the inevitable result of the formation of the human races, must necessarily sometimes increase and sometimes diminish, in however small a degree, the distance which separates the extreme terms; they allow themselves to employ these figurative expressions, and I should let them pass without comment were they not sometimes understood literally, either voluntarily or involuntarily. We know that the English naturalist has himself been obliged to protest strongly against the conclusions which have been drawn from his words or writings.

Huxley allows that the oscillations are never so great as to cause confusion. The human character, therefore, does not alter in nature; it does not become simian. The oscillations to which I allude may sometimes be observed in the same individual and even in the same bone. In the old man of Cro-Magnon, of whom I shall presently speak at some length, the femur is the broadest and thickest that M. Broca has ever measured in man, and we have found others of still greater size. Now, in the chimpanzee this same bone is broader and much thinner. Are we therefore justified in saying that the femur of Les Eyzies is partly simian and partly more than human?

Finally, what has really been proved, is the conclusion of Huxley which I have just quoted. Believers in pithecoid man must be content to seek him elsewhere than in the only fossil races with which we are acquainted, and to have recourse to the unknown. There may be some who will murmur at this necessity, and protest in the name of philosophy. Let them say what they will, we are content with having experience and observation on our side.

VIII. If we consider the general formation of the skull, all fossil races may be referred to two fundamental types; the one distinctly dolichocephalic, and the other advancing by degrees from metacephaly to a very strongly marked brachycephaly.

Animated discussions were held some years ago to decide which of these two types preceded the other. This question again is connected with a number of general ideas which may be designated as the mongoloid theory.

At the conclusion of some excavations among ancient tombs and a few dolmens, Serres announced in 1854 that the inhabitants of France reckoned Mongolians among their ancestors. Some time previous to this, some Scandinavian savants, among others S. Nilsson, Retzius, Eschricht, etc., had connected with the Lapps, that is to say with the Finnish race, round-headed skeletons which had been discovered in the neolithic tombs and the peat-bogs of Scania. M. Pruner Bey, combining these earlier notions with the data recently acquired concerning the antiquity of man, has formulated by degrees a complete theory, remarkable for its simplicity and for the light which it throws upon the whole past history of the populations of France.

In the opinion of this eminent anthropologist, there still exists at the present time a vast human formation which he designates mongoloid, because it appears to him to be connected in certain respects with the Mongol type, properly so called, whilst at the same time preserving a certain number of characters in which it resembles the white races. This great race, as it is understood by M. Pruner Bey, occupies the greater portion of the north of the old continent, and extends even into America. It is, moreover, represented in the centre and south of Europe by several more or less isolated groups, such as the Basques. Certain historical populations, such as the Ligurians, have belonged to it. There is every indication of its having once occupied the whole of Europe. Now, this race itself is descended from the primitive quaternary race, as it is known to us through the fossil skulls found by M. Dupont at Furfooz in the valley of the Lesse. The parentage and filiation of these races appear to M. Pruner Bey to be attested by the general form of the skull and by its proportions, which in all these races are more or less brachycephalic.

The opponents of these general views brought forward the existence of the crania found in the Neanderthal in Prussia, in the Engis cave in Belgium, in the tufa beds of La Denise in Auvergne, in the loess of the Rhine at Eguisheim in Alsace. All these heads are dolichocephalic. They were said to be more ancient than those of Furfooz. But at this time there were doubts of a different nature with regard to nearly all these bones which might have appeared legitimate, and the theory of M. Pruner Bey gained by this means many strong adherents. When writing in 1875 my Rapport sur les progrès de l’Anthropologie, I felt obliged to ascribe anteriority to the brachycephalic type, though at the same time making formal reservations, especially in favour of the Eguisheim skull. The discovery at Cro-Magnon, in Périgord, which followed soon after, showed how carefully we must guard against drawing too hasty conclusions. It was evident, that, in presence of these great dolichocepliali, incontestably anterior to the men of the Lesse, the mongoloid theory must undergo serious modifications which I did not hesitate to acknowledge.

Since then science has been enriched by new discoveries, and many points have been cleared up. The old beds of the Seine, studied with remarkable intelligence by M. Belgrand, have furnished us with a relative chronometer, the indications of which have been fully appreciated by M. Hamy. The work presented by him at the Stockholm Congress leaves no room for doubt. Till the present time the dolichoceplialic type only has been found in the lowest gravels of the plain of Grenelle. It is therefore represented by the Canstadt race. It reappears in the form of the Cro-Magnon race, in the alluvial beds at the level of and below the erratic blocks at a depth of from 3 to 4 m. (10 to 13 ft.). Skulls which approach more or less to the brachycephalic type are only found above this level at a depth of from 2·50 m. to 1·40 m. (8 ft. 2 in. to 4 ft. 7 in.).

The superposition, and consequently the succession of types, is here evident. Does this authorise us to consider the dolichocephalic type as having everywhere preceded the brachycephalic? We ought perhaps still to retain some doubts on this point. Some fragments, belonging probably to the latter, have been discovered at Clichy, very little above a cranial vault of the Canstadt race, and the beautiful skull from Nagy-Sap in Hungary was obtained from a well characterized loess, the age of which does not however appear to have been determined.