New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-06-06
SCIENCE FOR THE PEOPLE.
MAN ON THE AMERICAN CONTINENT.

MAN ON THE AMERICAN CONTINENT.
Professor Flowers, in q recent lecture on the
Anatomy of Man before the London Royal Col
lege of Surgeons, discusses at some lenRIn T Ehe
origin of man on the American continent: Inc
views till lately held as to the peOpnng OF
America may, he says, be grouped under TWO
heads ;-Q) That the inhabitants OF that conu5
nent were distinct Indigenous people, createC
in the country in which they were found, ana
therefore not related to those of any other land.
This is the theory of the polygenisne scnOOl,
but is probably not held by many sclentlnc men
of the present day. ~ The monogenlsts
mostly believed that they are descen9ed IrOI9
an Asiatic people, who in comparatively recenJ
times passed into America by way OF Behring'S
Straits. and thence spread gradually over the
whole continent, as far as Cape Horn, and tnat
their nearest allies must therefore Oe looked Ior
in the northeastern regions OF ASIA. IL mas also
been Thought by those who have held the same
general views, that at all events partial re-
neOnljnp of the American continent may nave
occurred from Southern ASIA, by way OF inc
POlynesian Islands, or from North Alrlca'
across the Atlantic. . .. -
The discovery of the great antiquity of the
human race in America. as well as IN tDe OlG
World has led to an important m0dlncauon ol
these theories. ! he proof OF very, cOnsluer-
able antiquity rests upon the hlgh ana inuepe III
dent state of civilization which had been az
tanned by the MeXcans and PeruVlahs ~ INC
time of the Spanish conquest, and the evidence
that that civilization had been preceded by sew
elal other stages OF culture, following III suCCco
sion through a great stretch OF time. But the
antiquity of the quas-hlstOIlcal period. bh9s
brouVnt out, is entirely thrown into the slaGe
by the evidence now accommodating from various
parts of the United States, Central America,
and the PampaS, that man existed IN thOse
Countries and existed under much tine same
conditions of life, using precisely similar
weapons and tools, as in Europe, during ihe
piestOtene or quarternnry geolOglcal pciIou'
and. perhaps. even further back III time. AS I'D
Europe his works are found associated win inc
remains of Erphas primgCnNs, and other eX-
tiuct mammals, so IN America are they found III
contemporary deposits with those OF ElephaS
columbi II the InductOns commonly made
from these discoveries be accepted, and inc iact
admitted that men lived both IN Europe ana
America before the surface OF the earth had as
sumpd its uTes"nt geographical conformation,
the data from which the problem OF the popping
of America is TO be solved ire altogether
changed.
Recent archaeological inv, sigations, es-
ppciallv those carried OH with such great sue
cess in tn nci .hbOIhoOd OF the Rocky Noun
fans, show that an immense number oil IONS
of terrestrial ANIMALS that Weic formerly sup
uosed 10 re peculiar to The Old World are
abundant III the New; indeed many, sllch as
the horse. rh;nOccTOseS, camclS, e!c., ne more
numerous IN species and varieties in tue latler,
and therefore ne mean, Of land COMMUNICATION
heiwpcn the TWO must have been very different
10 what il Is now. Taking all eli. nmStanceS
INFO ConsidtTa ion, It Is qni;e as nkciy thdt
ASiatic man may have been dcrVtd nom
Ampri,a rs the rev crsc, or both may have Lad
thcIr sOulce in Il common centre, In some region
of the earth now covered with sen.