huxley 1863

8/8/2019 Huxley 1863

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/huxley-1863 1/4

100 Part Two /1856 to 1890

primitive peoples could not attain civilization through their own efforts

went on to suggest that civilization was a revealed gift from the Deity

to those favored peoples who were deserving of it at some period sub

sequent to the Fall. A second attack from the upholders of traditional

concepts of human origins involved the idea of macromutation: man is the

result of a divinely directed and sudden genetic leap from an animal that

was morphologically an anthropoid to a creature endowed with human

powers of cerebration, culture, and language. It is ironic that the concept

of mutation, once believed to give the coup de grace to theories of human

evolution, should today hold a necessary place in genetic interpretation of

this problem.

The final sallies of the anti-evolutionists were somewhat resolved to

the satisfaction of both parties through Wallace's hypothesis of human

cerebral evolution. Like de Quatrefages and Topinard, Wallace recognized

that the fossil discoveries made thus far in Europe were morphologically

not very different from various kinds of living hominids of different racial

groups in the world today. Even the more unusual Neanderthal Man had a

cranial capacity within the range of modern racial norms. Wallace suggested

that man's physical development had been very slow in its evolution, but

that once man was morphologically differentiated from his apish kin heremained physically stable for all time. However, he argued, the human

brain was a new feature in biological history that evolved since the Mid

Tertiary, any further phYsical development in man being unnecessary and

so impossible. Thus freed from the process of natural selection, man became

a very special creature in the biotic realm, but since, in Wallace's view,

intellectual development does not have any physical manifestation, it is not

surprising that the cranial capacities of certain fossil specimens should fall

within the same size range as the capacities of man today. The Degenera

tionists appreciated this theory since it distinguished man from the other

creatures of the natural world. The evolutionists liked it for its generous

time allowance for human evolution, particularly at a time when physicists

were seeking to estimate scientifically the age of the earth and the duration

of man's life on it. But after the discovery of Pithecanthropus in 1890-91,

these arguments for a large-brained human progenitor lost their vitality.

On Some Fossil Remains of Ma n

Thomas Henry Huxley

1863

I have endeavoured to show in

the preceding Essay, that the

Anthropini, or Ma n Family, form a

\'ery well defined group of the Pri

mates, between which and the im

mediately following Family, the

Catarhini, there is, in the existing

world, the same entire absence of

any transitional form or connecting

link, as between the C a t ~ l r h i n i an d

Platyrhini.

It is a commonly received doc

trine, however, that the structural

intervals between the various exist

ing modifications of org.1 nic beings

may be diminished. or even obliter

ated, if we take into account the

long and varied succession of ani

mals an d plants which hm'e pre

cedE'd those now living an d which

are known to us only by their fossilized remains. Ho w far this doc

trine is well based, how far, on the

other hand, as knowledge at present

stands, it is an overstatement of the

real facts of the case. and an ex

aggeration of the conclusions birly

deducible from them, are points of

grave importance, bu t into the dis

cussion of which I do not, at pres

ent, propose to enter. It is enough

that such a view of the relations of

extinct to living beings has been

propounded, to lead us to inquire,

with anxiety, how far the recent dis

coveries of human remains in a fossil

state bear out, or OppOSE', that view.T shall confine myself, in discus

sing this question, to those fragmen

tary Human skulls from the caves

of Engis in the valley of the : ~ v l e u s e , in Belgium, an d o[ the Neanderthal

near Dusseldorf, the geological rela

tions of which have been examined

with so much care by Sir CharIcs

Lyell; upon whose high authority I

shall take it [or granted, that the

Engis skull belonged to a contem

porary of the Milmmoth (Elephas

jnimigenius) an d of the woolly

Rhinoceros (Rhinoceru5 tichorhi-

!lus), with the bones of which it was

found associilted: and that the

Neanderthill skull is o[ great, though

uncertain, antiquity. Whatever be

the geological age of the latter skull,

"O n Some Fo"il Remains of l\1an." ,Han's Place in Nature. Essay 3, pp .

1:19-41, 165-67, 180-81. Univer,ity of Michigan, Ann Arbor, \959. "O n

Some Fossil Remains of Man." Evidence as to .Wan's Place in Nature. Essay ~ J Williams and Norgate, London an d Edinburgh, \863.

101

8/8/2019 Huxley 1863


103

T

102Part Two / 1856 to 1890

a

Fig. I. The skull from thl: c<n e of Eng;s--Y;e\\ cd from the right side. Olle

half the size of nature a glabella, b occipital protuberance. (a to b glabello.occipital linl:), c auditory foramen.

I concein' it is quite safe (on the ceroses were washed pell-mell intoordinary principles of paleontologi the cave of Engis.

ca l reasoning) to ;lssume that the

fOJ me r takes us to, at least, the fur

ther side of the vague biologiGdSuch are the two best known

limit which s ~ p a r a t e s the presentforms of human cranium, \I'hich

geological epoch from that which hm e been found in what may beimmedia tely preceded it. And there

fairly termed a fossil state. Ca nG1I1 be no doubt that the physical either be shown to fill up or dimingeography of Europe has changed ish, to any appreciable extent, thewonderfully since the bones of Mc n

structur,tl interval which exists bean d .Mammoths, Hyzenas and Rhino.

tween .Man an d the man-like apes?

Thomas Henry Huxley / Somc Fossil Rcmains of Man

Or , on the other hand, does neither projection of the posterior lobe be

depart more widely from the an'rage yond the cerebellum. Finally, as all

structure of the human cranium, the world knows, the hair an d skin

than normally formed skulls of me n of human beings 111<1y present the

ar e knO\vn to do at the present day? most extraordinary diversities in

It is impossible to form any opin colour an d in texture.

ion on these questions, without somc So fa r as ou r present knowledge

preliminary acquaintance with thc goes, the majority of th e structural

range of variation exhibited by Imvarieties to which allusion is here

ma n structure in general-a subject made, arc individual. Th e ape-like

which has becn bu t imperfectly arrangement of certain muscles

studied, while f'\Tn of what is which is occasionally me t with! in

known, my limits will necessarily the white races of mankind, is no t

allow me to give only a \'Cry imper known to be more common among

fect sketch. Negroes or Australians: nor be

Th e student of anatomy is per· cause the brain of the Hottentot

fectly well aware that there is no t Venus was found to be smoother, to

a single organ of the human body have its com'olutions more symmet

the structure of which does no t vary, rically disposed, an d to bc, so far,

to a greater or less extent, in difIcr more ape-like than that of ordinary

en t individuals. Th e skeleton v-aries Europeans, are we justified in con

in the proportions, an d e\Tn to a cluding a like condition of the brain

ccrtain extent in the connexions, of to pre\'ail universally among the

its constitucnt boncs. Th e musclcs lower ran's of mankind, howe\-er

which move the bones vary largely probable that conclusion ma y be.

in their attachments. Th e varieties \\'e are, in fact, s'ldly wanting in

in the mode of distribution of the informa tiol1 respecting the disposi

arteries ar e ca rcfully classified, on tion of the soft an d destructible

account of the practical importance organs of e\Try Race of .M3nkind

of a knowledge of their shiftings to but our own: and even of th e skele

the surgeon. Th e characters of the ton, ou r ~ l u s e u I l l s are lamentably

brain \'ary immensely, nothing being deficient in cvery part but the cra

less constant than the form ,md size nimH. Skulls enough there are, an d

of th e cerebral hemispheres, an d the since the time when Blumenbachrichness of the con\'olutions upon and Camper fin-;t called attention to

their surface, while the most change the lllarked an d singular difIerences

able structures of all in the human which they exhibit, skull collecting

brain, are exactly those on which an d skull measuring has been ,I

the unwise attempt has been made zealously pursued branch of Natural

to base th e distincti\'e characters of History, an d the results obtained

humanity, viz. the posterior cornu1 See an excellent Essay hy Mr.

of the lateral \'entricle, the hippoCllllrch on the 11yology of the Orang, in

campus minor, an d th e degree of the Natural History Review, for 1861.

.......

8/8/2019 Huxley 1863


104

105

ha ve been arranged an d classified by

various writers, among whom the

late active an d able Retzius must

always be the first named.

An d now, to return to the fossil

skulls, an d to the rank which they

occupy among, or beyond, these

existing varieties of cranial confor

mation. In the first place, I must

remark, that, as Professor Schmer

ling well observed in commenting

upon the Engis skull, the formation

of a safe judgment upon the ques-

tion is greatly hindered by the

absence of the jaws from both the

crania, so that there is no means

of deciding, with certainty, whether

they were more or less prognathous

than the lower existing races of man

kind. And yet, as we have seen, it ismore in this respect than any other,

that human skulls vary, towards an d

from, the brutal type--the brain case

of an average dolidlocephalic E uro

pean differing fa r less from that of

a Negro, for example, than his jaws

do. In th e absence of the jaws, then,

any judgment on the relations of

the fossil skulls to recent Races must

be accepted with a certain resen'a

tion.

But taking the evidence as it

stands, an d turning first to the Engis

skull, I confess 1 can find no charac

ter in the remains of that cranium

which, if it were a recent skull,

would gi\'e any trustworthy clue as

to the Race to which it might ap

pertain. I ts contours an d measure

ments agree very well with those of

some Australian skulls which I ha w

examined-and especially has it a

Part Two /1856 to 1890

tendency towards that occipital flat-

tening, to the great extent of which,

in some Australian skulls, I ha\'e

alluded. Bu t all Australian skulls do

not present this Battening, an d the

supraciliary ridge of the Engis skull

is quite unlike that of the typical

Australians.

On the other hand, its measure

ments agree equally well with those

of SOllle European skulls. An d

assuredly, there is no mark of degra

dation about any part of its struc

ture. It is, in fact, a fair average

human skull, which might have be-

longed to a philosopher, or might

have contained the thoughtless

brains of a sa\'age.

Th e case of the l'\eanderthal skull

is \'ery different. L'nder whatever

aspect we view this cranium,

whether we regard its \Trtical depression, the enormous thickness of

its supraciliary ridges, its sloping oc-

ciput, or its long an d straight

squamosal suture, we meet with ape

like characters, stamping it as the

most pithecoid of human crania yet

discovered. But Professor Schaaff

hausen s t ~ l t e s that the cranium, in

its present condition, holds 1033.24

cubic centimetres of water, or about

63 cubic inches, an d as the entire

skull could hardly have held less

than an additional 12 cubic inches,

its capacity may be estimated at

about 7:5 cubic inches, which is the

average capacity given by "'forton

for Polynesian and Hottentot skulls.

So large a mass of brain as this,

would alone suggest that the pithe

coid tendencies, indicated by this

skull, did not extend deep into the

organization; an d this conclusion is

Thomas Henry Huxley / Some Fossil Remains of Ma n

borne out by the dinwnsiolls of the

other bones of the skeleton given by

Professor S c h ~ l a f f h a l l s e n , \vhicll show

that the absolute height ;llld relatin'

proportions of the limbs \\Tre quite

those of ~ l J l European of middle

stature. Th e bOlles ~ I r e indel'd stout

er, but this an d the great den·lop

ment of the muscular ridges notedby J)r. Schaaffhausen. are characters

to be t'xpected in savages. Th e Pata

gonians, exposed without shelter or

protection to a clillla te poss ibly not

very dissimilar from that of Europe

at th e time during which the .l'\ean-

c1erthal n l ~ l I l lived. are remarkable

for the stoutness of their limb bones.

III no sense, then, call the .l'\ean-

derthal bones be rcgarded ;IS t i l l '

rem;lills of a human being inter

mediate bet\H'en },fen an d Apes. At

most, they demonstrate the existence

of ;1 :\lan \vhose skull mZlY be sZlid

to r e \ ' l ~ r t somewhat tow;uds the

pithecoid type- jus t ZlS a C ~ l l T i e r , or

;1 Pouter, or a Tumbler, lllay some-

tiIlles put 011 tlw plumage of its

primitive stock, the Colulllba livia.

An d indeed, though truly the most

pithecoid of known human skulls,

the Nc;mderthZlI craniUlll is by no

means so isolated as it appears to be

at first. bu t forms, in reZllity, the

extreme term of ZI series leading

gradually from it to the highest an d

best den:loped of 11lIIllZln crania. On

the on e hand, it is closl'ly approached

by the flattelled Australian skulls, of

which I hZl\'e spoken, frOlll \vhich

other Australian forms lead us grad

ually up to skulls having \Try Illuch

the type of the Engis cranium. And,

on the other hand, it is e n ~ l l more

closely Zlffined to the skulls of certain

ancient people who inhabited Den

11l;lrk during the 'stone period,' and

were probably either contemporane

ous \\'ith, or hter than, the makers

of the 'I'dusc h e ~ l ps,' or 'K jokken

mijddings' of that country.

Th c correspondence between the

10ngitudinZlI contour of the ::\eander

thai skull and that of SOIlle of thoseskulls from the tUll1uli at Rorreby,

\Try ;Iccurate drawings of which

h a n ~ been made by :\11'. Rusk, is

\'erv close. Th e occiput is quite as

retreating, tile supraciliary ridges are

nearly as prominent, and the skull is

as low. Furthnmore, the Borreby

skull resembles the ~ e a n d e r t h ; l l form

more closely than allY of the Aus

trZllian skulls do. by the much more

rapid retrocession of the foreheZld.

On th e other halld, the Rorreby

skulls are all somewhat broader, in

proportion to their length, tlwn the

::\eaderthal skull, while some attain

that proportion of breadth to length

(flO: ] (0 ) which consti tutes brachy

ceplJaly.

In conclusioll, I may SZlY, that the

fossil l('mains of .'.fan hithnto dis-

con'red do not seem to me to tZlke

lIS appreciably nearer to that lower

pithecoid fonll, by the modification

of \\hich he has, probably, become

what he is. And considering whZlt isnO\\' known of the most Zlncient

Races of men; seeing tlwt they fash-

ioned flint aXl'S an d flint knives and

bone-ske\\ers, of much the same pat

tern as those fabricated by the lowest

s;I\'ages at the present day, and that

\\'e h a n ~ every reason to believe the

habits Zlnd modes of living of such

people to hZlve remained the sallie

from the time of the ,Mammoth alld

8/8/2019 Huxley 1863


107

..,..

Lyell / Post-Pliocene: Bones of Ma n

await the researches of some unbornthe tichorhine Rhinoceros till now,

I do not know that this result is paleontologist?

Time will show. But, in the meanother than might be expected.

\Vhere. then, must we look for while, if any form of the doctrine

of progressive development is corp r i l 1 1 ~ e v a l .Man? \Vas the oldestrect, we must extend by long epochsJIomo sajJicl/s pliocene or miocene,the most liberal estimate that has

yet been made of the antiquity ofor yet more ancient:' In still older

strata do the fossilized bones of an

Ape more anthropoid, or a ~ 1 a n Man.

more pithecoid, than any yet known

Post-Pliocene Period: Bones of Man and

Extinct Mammalia in Belgian Caves.

Post-Pliocene Period: Fossil Human Skulls of

the Neanderthal and Engis Caves

Charles Lyell1863

Post-Pliocene period-bones DISCOVERIES OF MM. Tt :RNAL AN D

of man and extinct CHRISTOL IN 1828, II'." TH E S OUT H

mammalia in Belgian caves OF FI{AI'."CE

Having hitherto considered those

formations in which both the fossil

In the Principles of Geology,

when treating of the fossil remains

found in alluvium, an d the mu d ofshells and the mammalia are of liv

ing species, we may now turn our

attention to those of older date, in

caverns, I gave an account in 1832

of the investigations made by MM .

Tournai and Christal in the South

which the shells being all recent, of France. 1some of the accompanying mam ~ Tournai stated in his memoir,malia are extinct, or belong to that in the cavern of Bize, in thespecies not known to ha\'e lived

within the times of history or tradi l I s t cd. vol. ii. ch. xiv., 1832; an d

tion. 9tfl cd. p. 738, 185:3.

"Post-Pliocene Period: Bones of Ma n and Extince Mammalia in BelgianCa\'Cs." "Post-Pliocene Period: Fossil Human Skulls of the Neanderthal and

Engis Caves." Th e (;eological E"idences of the A ntiquity of jl,[an with

Fig. 2. Ancient Dani. 'h skull from a tumulus at Borreby;

natural size. From a calU('[a lucida drawing by Mr . Busk.

one-third of th eRemarks on Theories of the Origin of Species by Variation. Chapter 4,

59-74; Chapter 5, pp. 75-80, 92. John Murray, London, 1863.

pp .

106

L

huxley 1863

Documents