The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1875-08-19
The Birthplace of Mankind.

| tits supposed by biologists that under
| the waves Of the Indian Ocean there sleeps
buried continent, and that Madagascar,
| Ceylon, and other islands lying to the
northwest, are its higher lands, that, in
| the submergence of the main body, still
tkept their faces above the sea. The name
of Lemuria " has been given by Prof.
| Sclater 10 this vanished land, and the the
DRY had been projected, and found many
/ supporters, that this was the biz thplace of
the human race. 1t has always been a
/ favOrite conjecture that the cradle of the
primitive man was located in some region
within the tropics, where the climate was
sufficiently warm 10 admit of his living in
comfort with little or no clothing and
shelter, and where fruits, herbs and rOets
suitable to his subsistence grew in spon-
taneOus abundance throughout the year,
making the struggle for existence an easy
one for the human animal to sustain.
Such region must have been the lost
continent of Lemuria, and here it admra-
! bly, fits the theories of scientists to place
the first home of mankind. The multitude
of rude implements fashioned by the hand
of man that have been found in Europe in
| The floors OF caves and in the strata of riv-
er-valleys give clew to his existence and
condition many thousands of years ago,
| but he had then advanced beyond the first
stage of savagism, having already invent
/ ed some arts by which to capture animals
and defend himself against his enemies.
No remains have yet been discovered that
/ testify TO his life while he was still in the
! infancy of his career, a creature more
! british. and imbecile, and helpless than
/ the native of New Holland and the Bush
man of Africa. But how easy 10 account
| for the lack of light on this period of his
existence by the hypothesis that he was
! born and passed his early years on a con-
tinent that has since sunk beneath the sea,
carrying with it all traces of his first rude
savage state.
| As Lemuria became overcrowded with
the multiplying family of mankind, some
of the more enterprising would wander
away to other TegiOnsi in search of the food
that had grown scarce in their native
home. And so, in process of time, it would
come to pass that the various parts of the
world would be peopled, and out of the
\ differences in the experience of the separate
/ groups of nOmadic men would be develop
ed the different races that have played a
part in the history of the world.
In the discussion of this subject, Prof.
| Huxley declares that the geographical dis
| trbution of the negro race cannot be eX-
| planned except upon the suppOsitiOn that
great changes, involving the submersion of
an immense tract of land or a closely-link-
ed chain of islands lying on the east of
Africa, have occurred since the appear
ance of that race. In a review OF DIR.
| Peschers Ethnology" DR.. Taylor says
of the theory that Lemuria was the cradle
of mankind:
''Such continent, DR.. Peschel thinks,
is an anthropologlcal necessity for Aus
tral ans, Coolies, Papuans, and negroes, 10
| reach their present homes almost dry-shod.
As to climate, moreover, this birthplace of
man would be situated in the very zone Of
anthropoid apes. 1t is remarked that such
choice of the region of mans first ap
pearance would be more orthodox than
seems at first sight, for here we are in the
neighborhOod of the four mysterious rivers
of Eden, namely, the Nile, Euphrates,
lrgus, and Indus; and in the gradual sub
mergence of Lemuria we see pitilessly ac-
complished the expulsion from Paradise,
81 ulted, as the old geographers knew, in
Southeast Asia. This, DR.. Peschel is care
full to add, is on y an hypothesis, but it
is an hypothesis which may lead to geo.
logical investigations of Madagascar, Cey-
Ion. and Rodriguez ana soundings in the
Indian Ocean in quest of the relics of the