The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1890-12-04


The story is not continuous but frag.
mentary. ~,
Imperfect as the record is which =
left us, these strata hold locked within
their adamantine clasps the story Of life
upon the earth. With many quaint
and curious device mother earth has
kept the family record. The bony
structure of animals remains long after
the individual animal has died, many
times, long after the species has become
extinct. The bones of great elephants
are dug up in California, though this
class of animals must have been extinct
long ages before Columbus time. Entire
skeletons of mastodons are exhumed
from the swamps OF New York State
and other States. Miners are constantly
finding the fossil remains OF reptiles and
fish that are total strangers to the age OF
man. Not only remains of animal life
but of vegetable life as well are stored
away in Natures great museums and
the unthinking hireling shovels them
out at 30 many cents ton. Sometimes
the bodies would be too soft to be pre-
served themselves, and then nature has
made cast of the article in question
and we have the trilobates, pieces of
petriied wood, stone butterflies that
boys delight in finding, beautiful i'm.
pressions of delicate ferns, natures
Kensinpton work. Each marble slab in
our cemeteries is composed of millions
upon millions of shells OF various sorts
easily discerned under the microscope.
Ten million monuments OF lesser ami.
NAL to mark the resting place of a two.
legged animal who for brief period
considered himself lord of creation.
1t is physiologicc 'act that man is
not single living organism, but the
| complex union of an infinite number of
living organisms, each complete in itself.
Each blood corpuscle has separate ex.
istence, comes into being, lives and dies
as an individual. And if we examine
any part of the human structure we
shall find it composed of material out of
which to make new bodies, of living
cells or bioplasts, and the dead carcasses
of the once living bioplasts. Hence the
living cell is said to be the unit of life,
and the classification of life may be
made upon the complexity of the cellu-
lar arrangement. Beginning with the
highest order of creation we find animals
with backbones that walk on two legs
and have two legs that they can use
with some degree of dexterity; this in.
cludes man and the different species of
ape. Next we find animals with back.
bones which use all four legs for walk
ing. Then we come to animals with
backbones that have four legs and yet,
living in the water and out, partly crawl
and partly swim this includes alliga.
tors, crocodiles, lizards and the like.
Next in order are the seal and walrus
which have flippers, cross between
legs and fins. Fishes are lower still.
Persuing our investigation we shall
find animals without backbones, oysters,
CLANS, snails, and so on down the scale
until we reach the microbe, the modern
liero of the germ theory of disease
With our microscope we shall find liv.
ing beings which consist of two cells
only, anti then last of all living beings
of one cell only.
The initial point of Evolution is this
Remains of these different orders of life
are found in the strata of the earth's
crust in the following order: The simp-
ler structure is always found in the
older strata. Clam shells and oyster
shells are found below the skeletons OF
reptiles. This Is feature of the earth's
crust SO marked that one layer is called
the age of fishes and the Eyer above it
is called the reptilian age. Above the
remains of reptiles are found the skele.
tons of what are commonly known as
four-fsoted animals. 1t is then simple
piece of reasoning to say, if the geologic
record be true then each succeeding
higher form of life has followed the pre-.
ceeding lower form at an interval of long
ages, and the missing link" is the lost
pages Of the geologic book.
The old saying, Everything from an
egg" is literally true. All life, whether
animal or vegetable, starts from single
cell. A common hens egg furnishes {
good illustration. The egg contains one
vital cell. As incubation goes on the
single vital cell becomes two. Then the
cells multiply until the mass is plainly
visible to the naked eye, but withou
specific form. As the cells become NOR
and more in number they begin t,
arrange themselves in such way tina
the form of chicken is recognizable.
.. After time the chicken is sufficient.
evolutcd to no longer need the protectio,
| Il cLcn o.l autovo vrov, LII LII =