Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-07-20
MANS ORIGINAL ZONE.
Belief That 1t Had Its Beginning in One
of the Plateaus of Asia.

From the Baltimore SUM-
Eden, according 20 the prevalent idea of
| the teaching of the Bible, was a district of
Armenia, watered by the Tigris and Eu-
pirates The Biblical narrative, in fact,
mentions the Euphrates as one of the riv-
ers of Eden. Undoubtedly, in the COM
mon belief, Paradise was in Asia and not
in Europe or Africa, some having the har-
dihood to establish it in America. but
those who have made the most fanciful use
of the scanty evidence supplied by the sec
| ond chapter of Genesis, have been content
usually to find the garden eastward in
Eden" within the limits of Asia. Scien-
fists, who hold a special view respecting
the mode of mans origin, are approaching
it is pleasant to observe, agreement with
the general view as To its place
In his new work on evolution Alfred
Wallace, who may be said to rank with
Darwin as the creator of the new view of
the origin of species, expresses the belief
that man originated in one of the plateaus
of Asia. HaeckePs view was somewhat
different. He held that man, or his pro-
Jenltor, originated In q continent which
once existed east Of Africa and south of
Asia, but which is at present the bed of the
Indian ocean. This continent, he sup
posed, was connected on the west with
Madagascar and Africa and on the north
with Asia, and it was by successive migra-
tons westward and northward that Africa
and Asia were peopled. Here in tropi-
lcal region, according to Haeckel, were
found the conditions which favored the
intellectual and physical development of
the projenitor of the human and the monk
ey races.
Wallace holds on the contrary, that
man originated in Asia, and in some part
of it favored with a temperate or sub-trop-
ical climate. 1t Is probable" he saws
" that he began his existence on the open
plains or high plateaus of the temperate
or Sub-tropical zone, where the seed of in
dlgenous cereals and numerous herbivora,
rodents and game birds, with fishes, mol
lusks In the lakes and rivers and seas, sup
piled him with an abundance 0! varied
food" Here he would develop, not the
arboreal structure of the monkey, fitted in
hands and feet for obtaining ripened fruit
from trees by climbing, but the structure
that lifted him to get his living while
roaming through soanty woods and over
the open plains. Mr.. Wallace finds man
related to the anthropoid ape. 1t is not
his belief, of course, that he is descended
from the ape as We know him, but that
man and the anthropoid ape are descended
from a common ancestor. The genealogi-
cal tree Of man and the ape, according to
the evolutonist view, has many branches,
widely separated for ages past, but if the
converging lines could be followed back
far enough, point, it is believed, would
ultimately be reached where the son who
was the first ancestor of man was the
brother of the first ancestor of the anthro-
Poid ape. The father ofthem both was, of
course, neither man nor ape. 1t was his
sons who, differing much in character,
force and progressiveneSs, developed in
themselves and in succeeding generations
the structure and qualities that now dis
tlnguish man and the ape from each other.
To MIR. Wallace it Is clear that man and
the anthropoid apes originated in the same
region of the earth. Where then, have
the latter been found to be now existing,
or to have existed, in former ages They
have never existed, 1t appears, in America,
and did not exist in Africa when it was
connected with Madagascar and both were
separated from Asia. Madagascar was
separated from Africa before the latter be-
came joined with Asia by the Isthmus Of
Suez. The animals of ancient Africa are
therefore to be sought in Madagascar. But
there are no traces of anthropoid apes in
Madagascar. Those, therefore, which now
exist in Africa must have come from Asia.
There is proof that man existed before the
Isshmas of Suez rose above the level of the
sea, and, supposing his distribution 10 have
been like that of his supposed relative, ne
must have reached Africa by land from
Asia. The color Of the Chinaman, inter
mediate between the black of Africa and
the white of Europe, Mr. Wallace thinks,
the original color Of man. The suns of
Africa ebonized the complexion of the
African, while the winters of Europe were
blanching the European. Further explo-
ration of the pIateaus of Central Asia may
may bring to light, Mr.. Wallace suggests,
the early man, the missing link. whose
persistent abb, so to speak, is so damaging
to the case of the evolutionist.