Page:Palæolithic Man and Terramara Settlements in Europe.djvu/252

192 égales des opinions extrêmes est plus que suffisante pour bien établir qu'on est en présence d'un être intermédiaire.

Dans un article public en Septembre 1896, W. Dames (Deutsche Rundschau, September 1896, p. 368), a fait le relevé de l'opinion de vingt et un auteurs de nations diverses concernant les pièces provenant de Trinil.

En voici le résumé. (Revue Mensuelle de l'Ecole d' Anth., 15th October 1896, p. 313.)

The Java Remains considered from a Wider Standpoint than that of Pure Anatomy.

In these circumstances it may well be asked, How are we to ascertain the real truth of this important matter ? Are we to regard the being who owned the Java bones as an ape ; or as a specimen of early humanity; or as the long-desiderated "missing link" which was to bridge over the wide gap between civilised man and the lower animals ? Or, is it really necessary to formulate these alternatives at all, for may they not indicate one and the same thing, their seeming difference being due to the different standpoints from which the phenomena are contemplated ? To form a rational opinion on these problems we must, I fear, cast our eyes beyond the debatable field of petty anatomical distinctions. For, after all, it seems to me that, except in a very general way, human anatomy furnishes but little evidence on the line of the descent of man.

Shortly after the publication of Dr Dubois' original memoir Professor Sir William Turner communicated a paper on the subject to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, in which he maintained that the Java skull-cap presented no specific characters which were not also to be found on other human skulls. "If we accept," says Sir William, "that the Pleistocene deposit in