Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-03-13

vailing theories is certain to be eagerly can
vassed wherever put forward.
In this article I propose briefly to discus
few facts that have recently come to Hgh
which seem to have an important bearing
on the controversy. The question raise'
may briefly be put thus: Is man to b.
considered as having appeared primarily q
ready-made article who sprang. into beint
somewhat after the fashion of the old foe O.
Miles Standish, ''the brave Wattawamot,
or has he been slowly developed ant
nodded by the machinery of circumstance
out of the Daser stuff? If the latter view
be accepted, does he bear upon him any
traces of the earlier stages Of the process
or marks of the mill which has made hin
what he is?
1t is with the desire to throw light upon
this last question that entered upon the
| researches into the characteristics of infants,
some of the results of which have been pub.
lished in various medical and scientific jour.
mails in England and on the Continent
and kindly republished by THE DISPATCH,
of Pittsburg, Pa
Mans History in Fleshy Tablets.
The paleontologists, and especially Prof
o. G. Marsh, have shown US the continuous
chain which links together many living ami
mails and ancient beasts of very different
structure and habits, which lived in epochs
too far remote to be connected with the
present by any unit of time measurement
such as we use to-day. Every day the rocks
are yielding up fresh chapters of their story
whenever the earth's crust is opened, and
each quarry or mine or railroad cutting has
become historical record to be read by
those versed in deciphering the strange in
scriptions there revealed. As yet the fossil
history of man is too broken and incomplete
to be of much use in explaining his origin.
We have, however, craven in the "heshy
tablets"'of his body the material for won
drous and true chronicle of his upward
struggle from brutedom.
It is strange that this vehicle, mutable
and perishable to proverb, should have re-
tanned the markings Of time and nature, like
q photographic tracing, when even the un-
changing rocks have failed to keep it. We
are but just beginning to comprehend the
characters and language of the record. but
already the relations have been of a strange
and startling kind. The little that has
hitherto been put forward in my published
papers is but the beginning of long and
ever-growipg series Of new facts and hints
of revelations yet to come.
A Prehensile but Invisible Tail.
My purpose in this paper is to deal with
man after he has made an entry on the
worlds stage. Having once got him here
the sooner we take him in hand to read the
chequered palimpsest Of his little pink
hide the more we shall learn. For he is q
new arrival from the realms of the un-
known and it is. well to question him before
him have become obscured or obliterated by
new experience.
That he trails (comet like) "clouds of
glory" behind him is doubtless true, since
Wordsworth has said so and thousands have
echoed him; but I am by no means sure
that this poetic and celestial nimbus
does not envelop more material and mum
dane core in the shape OF prehensile tail.
But as both clouds and tail are invisible to
the ordinary unimaginative eye, shall not
further discuss them, but proceed to points
which can be more easily seen and appre-
ciated.
have likened the skin of an infant to an
ancient parchment covered with successive
superimposed writings, and this comparison
can be justified without difficulty. in spite
OF Tue ueceptiNe appearance ol dpsoluCe
newness which the dormal envelope of the
little naseent mortal exhibits.
Evidence on the Soles of the Feet.
Let us look first at the soles of the feet.
Even at the first glance it is evident that
We are observing palmar rather than a
plantar surface. The feet of kittens or pup
pies are like those of their full grown
parents, and present no wrinkles or creases;
but the foot of the newborn babe is as