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Show 458 DARWINISM CHAP. less than 31 or 3 2 ounces, or that the heaviest gorilla brain has exceeded 20 ounces," although " a full-gro,:n gorilla is probably pretty nearly twice as heavy as a BosJes man or as many an European woman." 1 Th~ average hurn.'an brain, however, weighs 48 or 49 ounces, and If we take the average ape brain at only 2 ounces less than the very largest gorilla's brain, or 18 ounces, we ~hall see ~etter the enormous increase which has taken place m the bram of ma.n since the time when he branched off' from the apes ; an~ tlns increase will be still greater if we consider that the _brmns of apes, like those of all oth.er ~ammal s, have also mcreased from earlier to later geolog1eal times. . If these various consideration are taken mto account, we must conclude that the essential features of man's structure as compared with that of apes-his .erect posture ~nd free hands-were acquired at a comparatlVely ?arlY: penod., a_nd were in fact the characteristics which gave h1m his supenonty over 'othQr ~ammaJs, and started him on the line of devel?pment which has led to his conquest of the world. But durmg this long and steady development of brain. and intellect, ma~kind must have continuously increased m numbers and m the area which they occnpied-they must have formed wh~t Darwin terms a "dominant race." For had they been few m numbers and confined to a limited area, they could h~rd1 y have succe. sfully struggled against the numero~1s fierce carnivora of that period, and against those adverse mfluences which led to the extinction of so many more ~owerfn] animals. A large population spread over an extens~ve ar~a is also needed to supply an adequate number of br:u_n vanations for man's progressive improvement. . But ~h1s 1m.'ge population and long-continued development m a smgle lm ~ of advance renders it the more d1fficult to accom~t f?r the complete absence of human or p~e-huma.n remams. m all those deposits which have furm sh~d, m sue~ n cb abundance, the remains of other land ammals. It IS true that the remains of apes are also very rare, and we. may well suppose that the superior intelligence of .man led htm. to avoid that extensive destruction by flood or m morass wlnch seems to have often overwhelmed other animals. Yet, when 1 Man's Place in Nature, p. 102. XV DARWINISM APPLIED TO MAN 459 we consider that, even in our own day, men arc not unfreqnently overwhelmed by volcanic eruptions, as in Java and Japan, ~r ca1~ried away in vast numbers by floods, as in Bengal an.d Chma, 1t ~eems impossible but that ample remain. of MIOcene and Phocene man do exist buried in the mo t recent layers of the earth's cru t, and that more extended research or some fortunate discovery will some day bring them to light. 1'he P1·obable BiTthplace of Mctn. It has usually been considered that the ancestral iorm of man originated in the tropics, where vegetation is most ~bundant and the climate most equable. Bnt there are some Important objections to this vi~w. The anthropoid apes, as wel! as most of the monkey tnbe, are essentially arboreal in ~hei~ structure, whereas the great distinctive character of man Is h1s special adaptation to terrestr1al locomotion. \V e can hardly su~pose, therefore, that he originated in a forest reaion where frm.ts to be obtained by climbing are the chief vegetabl~ food. It 1s more probable that he beaan his exi. tence on the open plains or high plateaux; of_ the t~mperate or sub-tropical zone~ where the seeds of md1genous cereals and numerous herb1vora, rodents, and game-birds, with fi hes and mollu. c in the_lakes, rivers, and seas supplied him with an abundance of vaned food. In snch a region he would develop skill as a hun~er, trapper, or fisherman, and later as a herdsman and cultiva.tor,-a succession of which we find indications in the palroolithic_ and neolithic races of Europe. ~n seekmg to determine the particular areas in which his earliest traces are likely to be found, we are restricted to some po:tion of the Eastern hemisphere, where alone the anthropm~ apes exist, or have apparently ever existed. There IS good reason to believe, also, that Africa must be excluded, because it is known to have been sepnrated from the ~orth?rn co_nt~nent in early te-rtiary times, and to have acqmrec~ Its _ex1stmg fauna of the higher manunali:t by a later umon w1th that continent after the separation from it of ~adaga.scar, an island which has preserved for ns a. sample, as 1t were, of the early African mammalian fmum, from which not only the anthropoid apes, but all the higher quadrumana |