News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1886-03-25
PROF. DANA ON EVOLUTION.
He Believes With Darwin That Man May
Have Descended From Apes.

Prof. Dana's lecture on evolution at
Yale College, treated on the fundamental
laws restricting and giving direction to
variation. He said:
''Plants and animals have structural
polarity. A plant sends a root down as
well as stem up, and this must have
been involved in the plants physiology
and chemistry, sending the part which
needs the light above the ground. Ceph-
alization is the predominant head struc-
ture of the animal. When the tadpole
natures it loses its tail, legs grow, and
there is also headward and progressive
movement of the force. When the cater
pillar passes to a butterfly it loses a
large part of its body, and the size and
strength of its head is increased, and
wings develop. All these animals lose
the anterior portion of their bodies in
changes, as the caterpillar to the butter
fly and Others, as they mature Darwin
holds that man descended from species
of apes now entinct, but other naturalists
hold that the different races of men
come from different species of apes. We
| agree with Darwin, that all men must
have decended from one species. The
lowest races of man occupy the least
inhabitable parts of the earth. The like
ness of man TO the ape in structure is so
marked that it is evident that both may
have descended from the same ancestors.
Man has an erect structure, which the
| ape has not, and the ape has muscles in
the back of its neck to allow it to hold
| its head horizontal. The form of the
head of young orang outang is nearly
like that of an infant. In the ape the
brain reaches its perfection long before
that of man, but the size of the brain is
the most marked difference If man has
descended from apes, it must have been
from a long series of ancestors. The
links in this chain have been eagerly
sought for, and man has been traced
back far beyond his supposed existence.
Geology shows nothing sure in the
progress of species. The creation of a
being with a soul must have required a |
divine fat, although by evolution man
may have come from lower animals, but |
needed help from God to complete the
work. Living beings have come forward |
with some law which corresponds with
the geological changes, and it is shown
by geology that the gencis must have
been for a very long time a distinctly
appointed son of progress. If it can be
shown that progress went forward by
nature, it would be a strong argument
for the evolutionist. We plant seeds
and expect to gather the same kind of
fruit. The difference between varieties
and species is only a difference of de-
gree. Permanance of species may make
the variation of species by natural laws
f11I l
known to have lasted a great length of
time. How long would it take, then,
to evolve from the lower animals to
man9 Darwin says the geological rec
ord is broken sometimes for millions of
years, and here he is right
''Of marine life the rocks give better
account, but many of these rocks are
now submerged, and so give us no help.
There are no true marine rocks on the
Atlantic coast, and therefore we have to
look for our marine record to the Rocky
Mountains. The geological record is all
against the degradation of species The
mammals were early of great size, and
appear in the same strata of rocks. We |
know nothing of their ancestors. Gen.
era and species stand as far apart in |
geology as they do in nature, but do not
prove that through variation species
have been produced. The cases of grad
ual transition brought to our view by |
geology are few, and go to prove the |
theory of evolution. Geology does not
give its support to gradual variation, as
it ought, on account of its broken record. !
Darwin implies that creation by divine
is creation without any
special order. The existence of food |
eaters to correspond with the devourers
of plants is very essential. Nature has
its pessimistic side which troubles men.
One theologian said: God may have left
his work to be finished by apprentices
How could an elephant, for instance,
have been created? We might say we |
cannot measure Gods power, but it is
better to say that animals may not have |
been created from dead vegetable mat
ter, or evolved from lower species, but |
by special devine fiat. The fact that !
the general system of progress in nature
was a system of evolution is shown by |
the change from the lower to the higher. |
The living forms of the younger world |
correspond with the young of the |
modern world.