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The Descent of Man

The Descent of Man

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inhabited by extinct apes closely allied to the<br />

gorilla and chimpanzee; and as these two species<br />

are now man's nearest allies, it is somewhat<br />

more probable that our early progenitors<br />

lived on the African continent than elsewhere.<br />

But it is useless to speculate on this subject; for<br />

two or three anthropomorphous apes, one the<br />

Dryopithecus (17. Dr. C. Forsyth Major, 'Sur les<br />

Singes fossiles trouves en Italie:' 'Soc. Ital. des<br />

Sc. Nat.' tom. xv. 1872.) <strong>of</strong> Lartet, nearly as large<br />

as a man, and closely allied to Hylobates,<br />

existed in Europe during the Miocene age; and<br />

since so remote a period the earth has certainly<br />

undergone many great revolutions, and there<br />

has been ample time for migration on the largest<br />

scale.<br />

At the period and place, whenever and wherever<br />

it was, when man first lost his hairy covering,<br />

he probably inhabited a hot country; a<br />

circumstance favourable for the frugiferous diet<br />

on which, judging from analogy, he subsisted.

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