Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1893-07-25
THE MISSING LINK.
Professor virchow Says That 1t Is as :, 4
mote From Discovery as Ever.

Professor Virchow Says That 1t Is as T, n
mote From Discovery as Ever.
We know that man existed IN y
quaternary epoch, that he lived threr~
long ages miserable and depressed, wi,,lo
stone. wood, horn and bone constituted
the material of his arms and of his few
Instruments. We are convinced that
iong interval separated the age of stone
from the age of metals and that only in
particular, places was. the use of stone
Immediately replaced by that of metals.
These are the data which now make part
of the general knowledge acquired by
civilized nations since the foundation of
the congress, but further studies respect
Ing the origin and the regions whence
the different branches of civilization have
sprung have advanced relatively but very
little. We seek in vain for the missing
link" connecting man with the monkey
or any other animal species.
There exists a definite barrier separat-
ing man from the animal which has not
yet been effaced-heredity, which trans
mits to children the faculties of their
parents. We have never seen a monkey
bring a man into the world, nor a man
produce monkey. All men having
simian appearance are simply patholog
ical variants. 1t was generally believed
few years ago that there yet existed
few human races which still remained
in the primitive inferior condition Of
their organization. But all these races
have been objects of minute investiga-
ton, and we know that they have an or
ganiZation like ours, often indeed supe-
rior to that of supposed higher races.
Thus the Eskimo head and the head Of
the Terra del Fuegians belong to the
perfected types.
Some races have the same skulls very
small, of about the same volume as the
microcephalous skulls. For example, the
inhabitants Of the Andaman islands and
the Veddahs of Ceylon have been re-
garded as unacceptable. 4 more exact
study has, however, shown difference
between them and the real microcephalic
races. The head Of an Andaman islander
or of Veddah is very regular, only all
its parts are q little SMALLER than among
men of the ordinary races. NGnicephalic
heads dwarf, as | call them, have none
distinguish really unacceptable heads
: single race, that of the O-ang-Sin.a-
ings and the Crang-C c,iai of the peninsula
Of Malacca, still remains unstudied. Tie
single traveller who has penetrated into
the mountainous country inhabited 10y
them, the bold Russian Mikluhho Maklai,
has ascertained that certain isolated in
dividuals among Sinaings are small and
have curled hair. \ new expedition has
been sent into that country 90 study the
anthropology Of the Orang-Ccl,ai, from
which have received a skull and few
locks of hair. The stock is really black
race with curly hair, the brachycepha-
lous head of which is distinguished by
very moderate interior volume, but it
does not offer the most trihing sign of
bestial development. .r.
Thus we are repulsed &C every line of
the assault upon the human question.
All the researches undertaken with the
aim of finding continuity in progressive
development have been without result.
There exists no proanthropos, no man.
monkey, and the connecting link" re-
mains a phantom. Rudolph
Virchow's Lecture.