Note 311 — Chapter XVI
Reading edition
“If there once existed creatures above the apes and below man, who were extirpated by primitive man as his especial rivals in the struggle for existence, or became extinct in any other way, there is no difficulty in supposing them to have possessed forms of speech, more rudimentary and imperfect than ours” (Professor Whitney, Art. Philology, Ency. Brit., vol. xviii., p. 769).