Page:Evolution of Life (Henry Cadwalader Chapman, 1873).djvu/233

Rh sounds made by monkeys. Indeed, according to some authorities, the language of the Papuans is much more like that of the Monkeys than that of Shakspeare. Philological facts like those here only briefly mentioned lead us to the conclusion that the development of language in an individual of the higher races is the history of the development of language in general. It is sometimes said that the faculty of speech entirely separates Man from the Monkeys. But this difference, like all others, is only one of degree, not one of kind. The vocal organs are well developed in Apes, the Gibbons shouting to each other as they swing through the woods. To take Mr. Darwin's example, one might as well argue that the Crow is not a bird, because it croaks, whereas the Nightingale sings. Having mentioned some of the peculiarities of the structure and development of man in reference to his animal descent, let us now call attention to the importance of certain human remains in this respect. Through modern discoveries made in France, Belgium, Germany, etc., the remains of races of men have been brought to light, which without doubt have long since been extinct. Now, it is a very significant fact that the skulls of these primitive races exhibit a very low type of organization. According to Prof. Schaffhausen, "the form of the forehead of the Neanderthal skull (Fig. 205), the dentition and form of the jaw of La Naulette (Fig. 202), the prognathism of some infantile jaws of the stone period of Western Europe, exceed, as regards their animal form, that observed in living savages." Further, according to the same high authority, "these characters must not be considered as accidental exceptions from the normal form, which was the common theory on meeting with such finds; for these peculiarities in the organization of the pre-historic man do not occur as exceptions, but as a rule; and what is decisive is the circumstance that they mostly present a foetal character, and thus exhibit an early