Let us pass beyond the Tertiary Era for a
moment, and examine the earliest and most primitive remains we
have of human or semi-human beings.
The first appearance of man in the chronicle of terrestrial life
is a matter of great importance and interest. Even the least
scientific of readers stands, so to say, on tiptoe to catch a
first glimpse of the earliest known representative of our race,
and half a century of discussion of evolution has engendered a
very wide interest in the early history of man.*
* A personal experience may not be without interest in this
connection. Among the many inquiries directed to me in regard to
evolution I received, in one month, a letter from a negro in
British Guiana and an extremely sensible query from an inmate of
an English asylum for the insane! The problem that beset the
latter of the two was whether the Lemuranda preceded the
Lemurogona in Eocene times. He had found a contradiction in the
statements of two scientific writers.
Fortunately, although these patriarchal bones are very
scanty--two teeth, a thigh-bone, and the skull-cap--we are now in
a position to form some idea of the nature of their living owner.
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