After the fundamental question of unity comes that of antiquity. This is put similarly in the two doctrines. But the problem is simple and absolute for the monogenist, but multiple and relative for the polygenist

The question of the place of origin, which next presents itself, only exists in reality for the believer in the specific unity of human groups. The doctrine of autochthonism, though greatly multiplying the question, reduces it to very simple terms, since it declares that all the populations were born upon the spot whose foreign origin it does not establish, and only admits movements of expansion.

For the polygenist the general question of migrations does not exist. For particular cases autochthonism supplies everything. He who regards the Polynesians as having appeared on the islands of the Pacific has not to seek whence they might have come.

The question of acclimatisation for the polygenist is reduced to a small number of facts almost exclusively modern, human populations being in his eyes naturally formed for living under the conditions of life in which they were born.

The question of the formation of races disappears entirely for the polygenist, since the different species admitted by him have appeared with all the characters which distinguish the different human groups. At most he has to concern himself with the results of some modern crossings which are too evident to be denied.

The question of primitive man does not exist for the polygenist, since he recognizes all his species with the characters which they have had from the commencement.

No one, I think, will dispute the truth of these propositions, which compel the conclusion that anthropology is an entirely different science to the monogenist and the polygenist.

Polygenism seems to simplify the science in a singular manner; it will be said that it suppresses its most apparent difficulties. In reality it only does so by veiling or denying

them, and thus conduces to inaccuracy. At the same time it gives rise to others, which, although less easily perceived, are nevertheless more important, for they are essentially of a physiological nature, and cannot be solved by the general laws of physiology.

Monogenism seems at first to complicate and multiply the problems. In reality it only states them clearly. By that very means, it causes the necessity of long and persevering studies to be felt, which it rewards from time to time with great discoveries. It has required almost a century and the combined efforts of travellers, geographers, physicians, linguists, and anthropologists to establish the origin of the Polynesians, to follow their migrations, and to determine the date of them. But when this work is once set on the right track, human history is found to be enriched by a magnificent page, which gives another testimony to the intelligent activity of the human race and its conquests over nature.

BOOK VIII.

FOSSIL HUMAN RACES.

CHAPTER XXV.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.

I. TERTIARY man is only known to us from a few faint traces of his industry. Of tertiary man himself we know nothing. Portions of his skeleton have been discovered from time to time, it has been thought, in France, Switzerland, and especially in Italy. Closer study has, however, always forced us to refer to a comparatively much later period these human remains, which, at first sight, were regarded as tertiary.

It is different with quaternary man. We have much better and more precise information about him than about many existing races. The caves which he inhabited, those in which he buried his dead, and the alluvial deposits formed by rivers, which have borne away his corpses, have preserved numerous bones for our study. As many as forty different places in all, especially in the western portion of Europe, have supplied our museums with as many as forty skulls, more or less intact, and numerous fragments of the cranium and face, which science has been able to utilize, as well as a great number of the bones of the trunk and limbs, and even some entire skeletons. The most remarkable specimen, freed from the earth which covered it, but still left in its place, was brought from Mentone by M. Rivière and is now to be seen in the Anthropological Gallery of the Paris Museum.

Such is the accumulation of facts, already very consider. able, which M. Hamy and I have consulted in arranging the first part of our Crania-Ethnica. The importance of the skull in anthropology is well known. It is of itself sufficient to furnish the principal elements of the distinction of human races. The study and comparison of quaternary skulls enables us, therefore, to form a tolerably definite conception of these ancient populations, of the principal relations and most striking differences which, from this period, have distinguished human groups. The examination of the bones of the trunk and limbs tends, moreover, to confirm the results furnished by that of the skull. Thus we feel ourselves justified in expressing the hope that the future, by completing our work in many respects, by modifying it perhaps in others, and by filling up gaps in it, will at least confirm the essential conclusions.

It is evident that I here speak in M. Hamy's name as well as my own. The truth is, that what I am about to say on the subject of fossil man is almost the summary, not only of our book, but of many other general studies and of many discussions. It belongs, in fact, as much to my coadjutor as to myself.

II. Let us, in the first place, briefly describe the climate in which the fossil human races lived.

The quaternary or glacial period imposed severe conditions of existence on man. What then existed of Europe was surrounded on all sides by the sea, and was subject to all the consequences of an insular climate, that is to say, it was very damp, and moderately uniform in temperature, but chilled, to a great extent at least, by the Polar ice which extended even into France. The heavy rains, frequent in all seasons, took the form of falls of snow upon the high lands, and supported vast glaciers, the traces of which may still be seen in all our mountain chains. Immense water-courses hollowed out valleys in some parts, and deposited thick beds of alluvium in others. This vexed and watery land supported a fauna comprising, besides existing species, others which

have partly disappeared, partly emigrated to distant countries. Thus, on the one hand, there were the mammoth (elephas primigenius), the woolly rhinoceros (rhinoceros tichorhinus), the gigantic Irish elk (megaceros hibernicus), the cave bear (ursus spelœus), the cave byæna (hyœna spelœa), the cave tiger (felis spelœa), the horse (equus caballus); on the other hand, the reindeer (cervus tarandus), the elk (cervus alces), the musk ox (ovibos moschatus), the aurochs (bison europaeus), the hippopotamus (hippopotamus amphibius), and the lion (felis leo spelaa).

All these animals lived side by side during the greater part of the quaternary period. They afterwards became by degrees either extinct or separated. At the commencement of the present period, France, in which at one time they were all to be found, only retains the horse; and we must admit further, with M. Toussaint, that our beasts of burden and draught, are descended from fossil species, an opinion which is far from universal amongst paleontologists. We may remark in passing, that the same uncertainty exists upon the subject of the spotted hyæna and the grizzly bear, regarded by some paleontologists as races referable to the cave species.

Man was, in Europe, the contemporary of all these species. The phenomena which have given to these countries their latest characters, have not always had the same violence, nor have they either commenced or terminated abruptly. They offered periods of repose and of relative activity, till the time when the continents assumed their definite proportions, when the glaciers were first confined within their present limits.

The modifications of living beings accord with these oscillations of the inorganic world. The principal animal species seem to predominate in turn; the human races appear in succession, increase and decline.

During the deposition of the lower alluvium (bas niveaux) of our valleys, the mammoth, rhinoceros, and great carnivora, seem to have played the principal part. Man disputed the