1. Homunculus patagonicus.+ 2. Anthropops perfectus.+ 3. Homocentrus
argentinus.+ 4. Eudiastus lingulatus.+
{259}APPENDIX.
During the passage of this volume through the press, a good deal of
additional material has come into the author's hands, while the results of
important recent explorations have also been published. The following
appendix has, therefore, been added to include the latest additions to our
knowledge of the Anthropoids dealt with in its pages.
On page 82, the Talapoin (_Cercopithecus talapoin_) has been relegated to a
group (and, indeed, it had been assigned by Geoffrey to a distinct
genus--_Miopithecus_), in which it is the sole example on account of the
supposed peculiarity of possessing but three tubercles on the posterior
lower molar. A specimen which the author has recently examined shows that
this character is not invariable, and the species should, therefore, in his
opinion, be transferred to among the Green Guenons--Group II., CERCOPITHECI
CHLORONOTI--and be placed next after the Tantalus Guenon on page 62.
The extremely important collections made by his friend Dr. Forsyth Major
during his adventurous explorations in Madagascar in the years 1894 to
1896--from which he has but just returned--have made it necessary to add on
page 212 a new family to the _Anthropoidea_. In the marshes of Sirabé, in
Central Madagascar, he discovered the fossil remains of a species of true
monkey--a group hitherto unknown to occur in that island--which must have
been a contemporary of the Æpyornis, the well-known giant moa-like ratite
bird which once lived there, but is now extinct. The fragments so far
recovered show that in this creature the orbits were directed straight
forward and {260}were separated from the temporal fossæ by a bony wall. The
lachrymal foramen was situated inside the margin of the orbit; the inner
upper incisors were in contact in the middle line; the nasals were broad
and concave in profile, while the facial contour, viewed from the side, was
very high. The pattern of the molars closely agreed with that seen in the
Guenons (_Cercopithecidæ_). "The nasals are broad," continues Dr. Major,
"and so is the whole of the interorbital region, its transversal diameter
almost equalling that of the orbits, and therefore exceeding that obtained
in the genera of _Anthropoidea_, which show the maximum of external
extension of the region (_Mycetes_, _Hylobates_, _Homo_)." This is about
the only point in which the fossil approaches some of the _Lemuroidea_. The
formula of its upper teeth is I 2, C 1, P 3, M 3 = 18, or that which has
been found heretofore to be characteristic of the New World monkeys. "The
three molars are each composed of four tubercles, the outer and inner pairs
being placed opposite one another and connected together by transverse
ridges. This is the pattern of the _Cercopithecidæ_; but, unlike the Old
World monkeys, the molars decrease in size from before backwards"
(_Major_). In the lower jaw the formula appears to have been I 2, C 1, P 2,
M 3 = 16. Hence "whilst the dental formula of the upper teeth agrees with
that of the _Cebidæ_, it is quite peculiar in the lower jaw, and whilst the
pattern of the molars is that of the _Cercopithecidæ_, the premolars differ
alike from Old and New World monkeys.... These combined characters amply
justify the establishment of a separate family of _Anthropoidea_ for the
Malagasy fossil, intermediate in some respects between the South American
_Cebidæ_ and the Old World _Cercopithecidæ_, besides presenting characters
of its own." Dr. Forsyth Major has, therefore, proposed the new genus
_Nesopithecus_ for the reception of this most remarkable monkey, under the
new family of _Nesopithecidæ_. The discovery of _Nesopithecus roberti_,
{261}as he has designated the species, suggests, as Dr. Major has set forth
in the _Geological Magazine_ for October, 1896, page 436, "the following
general conclusions:--
"(1) We may look forward in Continental Africa likewise for the discovery
of Tertiary monkeys, intermediate between _Cebidæ_ and _Cercopithecidæ_.
"(2) The recent African _Cercopithecidæ_ are not invaders from the
North-East, as has been supposed; on the contrary, most, if not all, of the
Tertiary monkeys of Europe and Asia are derived from the Ethiopian region.
The home of a part at least of the _Anthropoidea_ seems to have been in the
Southern Hemisphere. This assumption is corroborated by the two facts--that
_Anthropoidea_ make their appearance for the first time in the later
Tertiary of Europe and Asia, and that they are entirely absent from the
Tertiary of North America."
After the first paragraph on page 219, the discoveries of Dr. Eugene
Dubois, made since these pages were written, necessitate the insertion of
the following paragraphs.
In the year 1892 this distinguished geologist made one of the most
important contributions to our knowledge of the antiquity of man. In that
year he disinterred a large number of vertebrate remains from
beds--determined to be of late Pliocene, if not of Miocene age--"of
cemented volcanic tuff, consisting of clay, sand, and consolidated
lapilli," at Trinil on the slope of the Kendeng Hills in Java. Among these
remains were a portion of a cranium, two molar teeth, and a femur,
presenting mixed simian and human characters. The dimensions of the
skull-cap showed that the internal capacity of the cranium was about 1,000
cubic centimetres, while the largest skulls of the _Simiidæ_ averaged only
about 500 centimetres. With the exception of this large capacity, the
calvarium presented few characters which were not strongly {262}simian, and
of all the apes it most resembled the Gibbons' (_Hylobates_); but it was
far superior in its cranial arch--low and depressed as the arch was--to
that of any ape. The frontal region was narrow and the supraciliary ridges
prominent. The neck area of the occipital bone was also ape-like in form.
The thigh-bone (_femur_), on the other hand, presented human characters in
a very marked degree, and gave no indication that the individual who owned
it was in the habit of sitting on his hams. The molar teeth were likewise
more human than ape-like, although they presented many strong simian
characters. Dr. Dubois has assigned these remarkable fossils to a species
which he has named _Pithecanthropus erectus_ (the Erect Ape-man), as he
believes that their owner occupied a place in the genealogical tree below
the point of devarication of the anthropoid apes from the human line. Dr.
Cunningham, of Dublin, however, who is one of our most eminent anatomists
and anthropologists, would place it "on the human line, a short distance
above the point at which the anthropoid branch is given off"; for he could
"not believe that an ape-form with a cranial capacity of 1,000 centimetres
could be the progenitor of the man-like apes, the largest of which had a
capacity of only 500. Such a supposition would necessarily involve the
assumption that the anthropoid apes were a degenerated branch from the
common stem." Altogether, then, a study of these important remains tends to
show that _Pithecanthropus_ had the lowest human cranium known, and was the
most ape-like ancestor of the human race yet described. He was very nearly
as much below the Neanderthal man as he was below the normal European. It
should be stated that some doubt has been expressed whether all the remains
belong to one and the same species of animal. Dr. Dubois' arguments for
their really belonging to the same individual appear, however, very
convincing.
{263}On page 223, after the close of the first paragraph, insert:--
In the Palæolithic Terrace-Gravels at Galley Hill, in Kent, in strata in
which numerous palæolithic implements have been found, one of the most
interesting discoveries of the ancient inhabitants of England was made in
1895. In these strata was discovered a human skull with a lower jaw, and
parts of the limb bones. The skull is very long and narrow; its breadth
index being above 64, and its height index 67. The supraciliary ridges were
large and the glabella prominent, with the forehead receding and the
occiput flattened below, while the hindmost molar was larger than the
first. The skull showed numerous points of resemblance to the Neanderthal
and Spy crania; as well as presenting affinities with the skulls of the
early Neolithic race. The limb bones gave indication that the individual
was short of stature, standing slightly over five feet. The evidence that
these remains were embedded naturally in the Pleistocene age in the
apparently undisturbed gravels in which they were found, and not interred
at a much later period, was very strong.