Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1880-06-12
PREHISTORIC NAN.


American Continent
Professor Flowers, In recent lecture on the
ANATOMY Of Man" before the London Royal
College Of Surgeons, discusses at some length
the origin OF man on the American continent.
The views TILL lately held as to .peopling Of
America, may, he says, be grouped under two
headS:-() That the Inhabitants OF that CONT
nent were distinct indigenous people, created
in the country in which they were found, and
therefore not related to those OF any other land.
This Is the theorI of the polygen1stic school, but
is probably not held by many scientific men Of
the present day: l2l The monogenists mostly
people, who In comparatively recent times
passed into America by way of Behring's Straits,
and thence spread gradually over the whole
nearest allies must therefore be looked for In the
northeastern regions of Asia. 1t has also been
thought by those who have held the same gene
raj views. that at all events partial repeopling
of the American continent may have occurred
from Southern Asia, by way Of the Polynesian
Islands or from North Africa, across the At
lantic
The discovery of the great antiquity of the
human race In America, as well as in the Old
World, has led to an important modification of
these theories The proof of very considera-
dent state OF civilization which had been at
tanned by the Mexicans and Peruvians at the
time OF the Spanish conquest and the evidence
that that civilization had been preceded by sew
ceSsion through great stretch of time. But
the antiquity Of the quasi historical period thus
brought out, Is enLlTely thrown into the shade
by the evidence now accommodating from various
parts OF the United States. Central America, and
the Pampas that man existed 10 those coun-
tries, and existed under much the same condf-
lions Of life. using precisely similar weapons and
tools, as in Europe during the pletstocene or
quartenary geological period, and. perhaps,
even further back In time. AS In Europe his
works are found associated with the remains of
ElephaS prtm1genius, and other extinct man,
mails. so In America are they found In contem-
porary deposits with those of Eiephas columbL
II the 1nductiOnS commonly made from these
discoveries be accepted, and the fact admitted
that men lived both in Europe and America be-
fore the surface OF the earth had assumed its
present geographical conformation, the data
from which the problem of the peOpling Of
America is to be solved are altoge ther changed
Recent archaeological Investigations, eS-
pectally those carried on with such great sue
cess in the neighbOrhoOd of the Rocky Noun
ta1nS, show that an immense number of forms
OF terrestrial animals that were formerly SUP.
posed to be peculiar to the Old World are
abundant in the New; indeed many, such as the
horses, rhinoceroses, camels ETC., are more
numerous In species and varieties In the latter
and therefore the means of land communica-
ton between the two must have been very
different to what it Is now. Taking all circum-
stances into consideration, ii is quite as likely
that Asiat1c man may have been derived from
America as the reverse or both may have had
their source In common centre, In some region
OF the earth now covered with sea.