The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1893-06-08
THE MISSING LINK.
Professor virchow Says That It Is as Re-
mote From Discovery as Ever,

Professor virchow Says That It Is as Re-
mote From Discovery as Ever.
We know that man existed in the
quaternary epoch, that he lived through
long ages miserable and depressed, while
stone, wood, horn and bone constituted,
the material of his arms and of his few
instruments. We are convinced that a
long interval separated the age of stone
from the age of metals and that only in
particular places was the use of sto.ls
in1n, oly replaced by that of metals,
Ties a.e the data which now make part
OF inc general knowledge acquired b.
civilized nations since the foundation
the congress, but further studies respect
ing the origin and the regions whent
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 monkcv
or any ether animal species.
There exists q definite barrier separat-
ing man from the animal which has net
yet been efaced-heradity, which trans,
mits to children the faculties of their
parents. We have never seen monkey
bring man into the world, nor man
produce monkey. All men having d
sinnian appearance are simply patholog-
ical variants. 1t was generally believe.
a few years ago that there yet existed q
few human races which still remained
In the primitive inferior condition OF
their organization. But all these races
have been objects CT minute investiga-
ton, and we know that they have an CT
ganization like ours, often indeed supe-
rior to that Of supposed higher races.
Thus the Eskimo head and the head Of
the Terra del Tuegians belong to the
perfected types.
Some races have the same skulls very
small, of about the same volume as The
microcephaloas skulls. For example, tho
inhabitants of the Andaman islands and
the Veddahs of Ceylon have been re-
garded as nlicrocephaEc. A more exact
study has, however, shown difference
between them and the real microcephaic
races. The head Of an Andaman islander
or of a Veddah is very regular, only ali
its parts ere little smaller than among
men of the ordinary races. Unacceptable
heads dwarf, as call them, have more
of those characteristic anomalies that
distinguish really unacceptable heads.
A single race, that of the Orang- Sima-
ings and the Orang-C elzai of the peninsula
of Malacca, still remains unstudied. The
single traveller who has penetrated into
the mountainous country inhabited by
them, the bold Russian Miklukho Maklaii
has ascertained that certain isolated in
dividuals among Simaings are small anG
have curled hair. A new expedition ha:
been sent into that country to study thu
anthropology of the Orang- Cekai, from
which have received skull and few
locks of hair. The stock is really q blacl
race with curly hair, the brachycepha
lous head Of which is distinguished by
very moderate interior volume, but Il
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 exists no proanthropos, no man
monkey, and the connecting link" re
mains a phantom. Professor Rudolph
Virchow's Lecture.