Die Vorgeschichte des Menschen

Abstract

THE author of this work is already well known by his. writings on Pithecanthropus erectus, the Neanderthal skull, and that of Egisheim. The basis of the pamphlet now before us is a lecture delivered by the author at the meeting of the Society of German Naturalists and Physicians, held at Cassel in 1903, but two valuable appendices have been added to the original lecture. The line of argument runs in the main on palæontological and anatomical evidence, though the existence of man in pre-Glacial times is regarded as an established fact. The writer claims for the Neanderthal man a specific distinction from the “homo sapiens” of Linnæus, and would term him “homo primigenius.” He traces the relations of this early representative of the human race not only with the Pithecanthropus erectus, but with the Dryopithecus and some of the more anthropoid forms of living apes, and in the illustrative plate gives diagrams of the forms of the different skulls. The agreement of the human remains from Spy, in Belgium, with those from the Neanderthal is accepted, and those from the Krapina cave, in Croatia, though varying in the brachycephalic direction, are regarded as belonging to the “homo primigenius.” Mr. Schwalbe seems even inclined to accept evidence of the existence of man in Tertiary times. Whether his conclusions can in all cases be adopted without hesitation or not, his arguments are worthy of careful consideration, and the appendices, which include an extensive catalogue of the literature on the subject of primæval man, will be found to contain a large amount of useful information.

Die Vorgeschichte des Menschen.

By G. Schwalbe. Pp. 52 + 1 plate. (Brunswick: Vieweg und Sohn, 1904.)