The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1893-04-26
IT REMAINS A PHANTOM.
Professor virchow holds That the Miss
ing Link Is Far From Discovery.

We know that man existed in the
quarternary epoch, that he lived
through long ages miserable and de-
pressed, while stone, wood, horn and
bone constituted the material of his
arms and of his only instruments. said
Professor Virchow in q recent lecture
at Moscow; we are convinced that
long 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 knowl-
edge acquired by civilized nations
since the foundation of the congress,
But further studies respecting 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 definite barrier separ-
ting man from the animal which has
not yet been effaced-heredity, which
transmits to children the faculties of
their parents. We have never seen
monkey bring man into the world,
nor man produce q monkey. All
men having a simian appearance are
simply pathological variants. It was
generally believed a few years ago
that there existed few human races
which still renamed in the primitive
inferior condition of their organization.
But all these races have been objects
OF minute investigation, and we know
that they have an organization like
ours-often, indeed, superior to that Of
supposed higher races; thus. the
Esquimau head and the head of the
Terra del Fuegans belong to the per-
| fected types. Some races have the
same skulls, very small, of about the
same volume as the m1crocephalous
skulls; for example, the inhabitants of
the Andaman islands and the Veddahs
| of Ceylon have been regarded as
| microcephallic. A more exact study
has, however, shown q difference be-
| tween them and the real microcephalic
races. The head of an Andaman
islander or of a Veddah is very regular,
only all its parts are little smaller
| than among men of the ordinary races
Nanicephalic heads dwarf, as call
| them, have none of these characteristic
anomalies that distinguish really
microcephalic heads.
A single race, that of the Orang-
Simaings and the Orang-Cekai of the
peninsula of Malaeca, still remains un-
studied. The single traveller who has
| penetrated into the mountainous coun-
tries inhabited by them, the bold
Russian. Miklukho Maklai,1 has ascer-
tanned that certain isolated individuals
among Simaings are small and have
curled hair. A new expedition has
been sent into that country to study
the anthropology of the Orang- -Cekai,
from which have recently received
skull and few locks of hair. The
stock is really black race, with curly
hair, the brachycephalous head of
which is distinguished by very moder-
ate interior volume, but it does not
offer the most trifing sign of bestial
development. Thus we are repulsed
at 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 ex-
lists no proanthropos, no man-monkey,
and the connecting link" remains q
1 phantom.