The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1894-02-05
BEGINNING OF MAN.
Or. eRlhTON FURNISHES INTEREST
ING DATA ON THE SUBJECT.

General Agreement on the Discoveries I'm
she Drift" - The Glacial Age Sand
wiched In Between Warm Periods.
where Man Opened His Eyes.
''The Beginning Of Man and the Age of
Che Race" is the subject of an article in
The Forum by DR.. Daniel G. Brinton,
one of the foremost anthropologists of
the time. The very earliest deposit in
which there may be sad to be q general
agreement that mans remains are found
is that called the Drift, series Of gravel
beds in the valley of the Thames in Eng
land, Somme in France and the >Manza-
mares in Spain, and elsewhere in western
Europe. In these beds his stone tools and
weapons are found lying in undistur bed
relations with bones Of animals long since
extinct, and which under the present con-
ditions of the climate could not exist in
that locality, these animals belonging to
= tropical or subtropical fauna. From
this one is led to believe that man lived
there at an early date when the climate
was much warmer than now, and that
he had lived there for a long time, for
thousands of his implements have been
found in various strata and scattered
ever a wide area.
After this warm period a period of ex-
treme cold descended from the north
over central and western Europe Huge
glaciers covered Scotland, Scandinavia
and Switzerland, and the forests of
France were the haunts of arctic qua
drupeds and birds, of musk OK, reindeer
and the white fox. Man, however,
v"athered this cold period and contin-
ued to roam the woods and fish the
streams, transferring his habitations to
natural caves, where evidence of his
hunts and his battles are still to be
found. This period Of cold is what is
called the glacial period" and by some
of our most learned geologists the length
of this icy age has been placed from
10000 to 10000 years.
Adding this to the former calculation,
and allowing a reasonable time for prime
val man to develop and spread over the
area in which he lived, we have as the
approximate time since man has ap-
peared in Europe-where, up to date, we
have found the earliest trace of his ex-
istence-about $4,000 years. This Mr.
Brinton regards as the minimum allow
ance for him. Some writers of Ieminence
have required 100000 years to explain
all these changes in climate, i'm organic
life and in geological deposition, but Mr..
Brinton points out that the tendency Of
late years has been toward a reduction
of these figures, especially by field geol-
ogists, who seem to be more impressed
with the rapidity of natural actions than
heretofore.
Coming next to the consideration Of
the origin of man, DR.. Brinton declares
that there is no trace anywhere of the
missing link, no evidence that man de-
veloped out of some lower animal by
long series of slow changes" Nor does
he accept the doctrine of specific crea-
ton as scientific explanation. There
10 third possible theory of the origin of
man which DR.. Brinton holds is as good
Is another-namely, that called "evolu-
tion per saltum," or with jump.
ut is that process, whatever it may
be. which produces sports in plants and
., 'cranks' and 'geniuses' III respectable
families. No doctrine of 'heredity' or
'atavism' or 'reversion' can explain tbesa