Professor L. Manouvrier, have even mentioned the idea as a possible explanation of the peculiarities presented by the Java skeleton. The opinions of these two gentlemen are all the more valuable, inasmuch as it does not appear that either of them derived their inspiration from anything previously written on the subject.
Dr Keith (Science Progress, vol. iii., July 1895, p. 368) thus writes :—
"It seems to me, however, highly probable that the frame of man reached its perfection for pedal progression long before his brain attained its present complex structure. If one conceives this probable, or even possible, there is no hindrance to awarding the femur to the Bengawan woman."
This, though short, is perfectly explicit in support of the principle of my contention. Professor Manouvrier discusses the question at much greater length, and several passages could be quoted from his writings, but perhaps the following will be sufficient for our purpose :—
"L'évolution humaine de ce fémur aurait done été plus rapide et plus complète que celle de crâne et des maxillaires. Or, cela n'infirmerait en rien les deux hypothèses précédentes. II est très vraisemblable, en effet, que si une race d'anthropoïdes grimpeurs a pu évoluer vers le type humain sous l'influence de conditions quelconques, l'adaptation de ses membres inférieurs à la marche a dû être rendu libre pour des fonctions autres que la locomotion, les membres supérieurs et determiné ainsi le progrès cérébral. J'ai déja insisté ailleurs sur cette remarque." (Memoires de la Soc. d* Anthropologie de Paris, 2nd series, vol. iv.)
"On trouve, d'ailleurs, actuellement, des races humaines, tres arrièrées sous le rapport de la forme du crâne, qui ne le cèdent en rien aux races européennes sous le rapport du fémur. II n'y aurait donc pas lieu de s'étonner de trouver une race humaine tertiaire ou quaternaire plus avancée sous le rapport de l'évolution fémorale que sous le rapport de l'évolution crânienne." (Bulletins de la Soc. d'Anthropologie de Paris, vol. vi., 4th series, 3rd January 1895, p. 33.)
Dr Dubois, also, in his article to the Royal Dublin Society, particularises and adopts these views in the following manner :—
"Manouvrier and Dr Arthur Keith point out that the human form of the Trinil femur is not sufficient to prove that it did not belong to the same individual as the skull-cap ; for, the phylogenetic evolution of the human femur ought to have preceded that of the skull, as the erect attitude and the erect locomotion have been the cause of the intellectual perfection. Suppose a species of Anthropoid Ape whose frame rather resembles the human suppose a large Hylobates should strive to perfect the pedal locomotion, which this
