The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1878-04-04
Views OF yirchow ON Evolution.

Virchow is admitted by scientists to
stand in the front rank of biologists.
His views, therefore, in regard to the
origin of the human species, which we
here present, will be interesting to the
large circle of our intelligent readers:
There are at this time few students of
Na.nra who are not of tho opinion +het
man stands in some connection with
the rest of the animal kingdom, and
that such connection may possibly be
discovered-if not with the apes, yet,
perhaps, as Herr Vogt now supposes,
at some other point. / freely acknowl-
edge that this is desideratum1 in sci
ence. am quite prepared for such a
result, and should neither be surprised
nor astonished if the proof were pro-
duced that man had ancestors among
other vertebrate animals. You are
aware that am now specially engaged
in the study of anthropology; but anu
bound to declare that every positive
advance which we have made in the
province of prehistoric aDthropology
has actually removed us further from
the proof of such a connection. An
thropology is at present occupied with
the question of fossil man. We have
gone back from the man of the present
period of creation into the Quatern-
ary age, the time respecting which
Cuyler still maintained most distinctly
that, speaking generally, man did not
yet exist. But in our day the Quatern-
ary man is fact universally accepted.
The Quaternary man is no longer a
problem, but real doctrine. The Ter
tiary man, on the contrary, is prob
lem, the material evidence of which is
now under discussion. There already
exists objects with regard to which it
is disputed whether they are to be ac-
cepted as proofs of the existence of man
in the Tertiary period. We are no
longer making mere speculations on
the point; but we. are debating
about distinct specimens, whether they
can be acknowledged as evidence Of
the activity of man in the Tertiary
period. The question proposed re-
ceives different answers, according as
these material objects are deemed suf-
ficient evidence or not. Eminent
churchmen even, such as the Able
Bourgeois, are convinced that men
lived in the Tertiary period. For
them the Tertiary man is now an actual
doctrine; for us, who are of a somewhat
more critical disposition, the Tertiary
man is still only problem, but, we
must acknowledge, a problem fit for
discussion. Let us, then, in what we
have now to say, keep Professionally to
the Quaternary man, whom we really
find When we study this fossil man
of the Quaternary period, who must,
of course, have stood comparatively
near our primitive ancestors in the Sc
ries of descent, or, rather, of ascent,
we always find man just such as men
are now. As recently as ten years ago,
whenever skull was found in peat
bog, or in pile-dwellings, or in ancient
caves, people fancied they saw in it q
wonderful token of savage state still
quite undeveloped. They smelt out the
very scent of the ape Only the trail
has gradually been lost more and more!
The old troglodytes, pile-villagers and
bog people prove to be quite Q respect
able society They have heads so large
that many living person would be
only too happy to possess such. Our
| French neighbors, indeed, have warned
us against inferring too much from
these big heads. It may have been
that their contents were not merely
nerve-substance but that the ancient
| brains may have had more connective
| tissues than is now usual, and that, in
spite Of the size of the brain, their
nerve-substance may have remained at
| q lower stage Of development. This,