The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1879-11-05
SCIENCE.
Its Relations to Human Progress.

NO. vi.
Written for The Florida AgricuIturst, by Profess
sor j. II. Fowler.
Professor Huxley says: "In regard
to another very important topic, the
development of art, and the use of
tools and weapons, most remarkable
contributions have been made by
General Lane Fox, whose museum at
Bethel Green is one of the most ex-
traordinarY exemplifcatiops that I
know, OF the ingenuity and at the
same time of the stupidity of the hu.
man race. Their ingenuity appears
in their invention of given pattern
or form of weapon and their profound
stupidity in this, that, having done
so they keep in the old grooves, and
were thus prevented from getting
beyond the primitive type Of these
objects, and OF their ornamentation.
Zone of the most singular things in
that museum is its exemplifcation of
the wonderful tendency of the human
mind when once it has got into
groove to stick there. The great
object of scientific investigation is to
run counter to that tendency"
Attention is here directed to three
prominent facts in the history of man:
First The exhibition of superior
intelligence in the construction and
ornamentation of tools and weapons.
Second. A remarkable tendency
to imitation or repetition producing,
as it were, grooves of thought and
action In which mankind are held in
bondage and further progress checked.
Third. Scientific research liber-
ates from the bondage and causes new
advancement. Anatomically consid-
cred, man is widely distanced from
the lower animals by the much larger
preponderance of the cerebral hem
ispheres or organs of intelligence.
"a M 2 ,,vg
a corresponding coronal develop
ment.*
While the still earlier traces of hui
man existence consisting of tools, and
weapons, show that man at once took
his departure from the lower animals
as an instrument maker and user
collection of these tools and weapons
constitute the records of human his
tory, during the very long and sue
cessive prehistoric periods. Perhaps
no man livingis better qualified to in
terpret these records in reference to
the evolution of human intellect than
Prot. Huxley. With an eye long train
ed by careful observation of facts and
masterly power of analysis and gen.
eralization acquired by the study of
kindred phenomena covering long
periods in other departments of ma
ture, he was enabled to see at a
glance, in that remarkable collection
at Bethel Green Ga most extraordi-
nary exempifcation," of the two
phases of every great cycle ofhuman
experience and the relations of
science thereto.
The first phase exhibiting the in
| cenuity of man we shall call the Ac-
| tive Phase of Evolution. The second,
representing the profound stupidity"
or "growing tendency" we shall call
the Passive Phase.
For the sake of clearness and a
more systematic presentation OF the
professor Huxley in his address above
| ouOted, saws: within the last twenty
| Years we have an astonishing accumula-
! tiOn of evidence OF the existence of man
| in ages antecedent to those of which we
have any historical record. But
| it is beyond all question that man. and
| not only man, but what is more to the pur-
| pose, intelligent man, existed at times
| when the whole physical conformation of
| the country was totally different from
| that which characterizes it now. Whether
| the evidence we possess JuStlties us In 60
| ing back further or not, that we can get
| back as far as the epoch of the drift is, i
! think, beyond any rational question OF
| doubt; that may be regarded as something
Within the last did there-"E Evidence
as to Mans Place in Nature" PUT forward
| the opinion that what is known as the
| Neauderthal Skull is, of human remains,
| thar which presents the most marked and
| definite characteristics of lower type.
| / believe it to belong to the low
| est forms of human beings. OF which
| we have any knowledge, and we know
| from the remains accompanying that COM
| mon being that, as far as all fundamental
| points of structure were concerned, ne
| was as much of man---couid wear Doots
| just as easilY-as any OF u.s."