The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1894-05-02
BEGINNING OF Man.
DR.. RRlN7oN FURNISHES INTEREST,
ING DATA ON THE SUBJECT.

DR.. BRlNIoN FURNISHES INTEREST
ING DATA ON THE SUBJECT.
General Agreement ON tho Discoveries In
tho 'Drift"-The Glacial Ago Sand
wiched In Between Warm Periods.
Where MAJ Opened His Eyes.
"The Beginning Of Man and the Ageoi
the Race" sthe 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 Shere may be said 10 be q general
agreement that mans remains are found
is that called the Drift, a series of gravel
beds IN the valley Of the Thames in Eng
land, Somme in France and the Mama
mares IN Spain, and elsewhere in western
Europe. In these beds his stone tools and
weapons are found lying in undisturbed
relations with bonesof 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 Gate when the climate
was much warmer than now, and that
he had lived there for p long time, for
thousands Of his implements have been
found IN various strata and scattered
over q wide area.
After this warm period q period Of ex-
Heme cold descended from the north
over central and western Europe. Huge
glaciers covered Scotland, Scandinavia
and Switzerland, and the forests OF
France were the hsunts Of arctic qua
drupeds and birds, of musk OK, reindeer
and the white fox. Man, however,
weathared this cold period and contin-
ned 10 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 ourmost learned biologists the length
Of this sicy age has BEEN placed from.
90,000 to 30,000 years.
Adding this to the former calculation,
and allowinga reasonable timefor prime
val man to develop and spread over the
area in which he lived, we have as the
approximate time since man has APP
peared in Europe-where, up to date, we
have found the earliest trace of his e1-
istence-about $1,000 years. This MI.
Brinton regards as The minimum allow
ance forshim. Some writers of eminence
have required 100000 years to explain
all these changes IN climate, in organic
life and IN geological deposition, but MI.
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 raore impressed
with the rapidityof natural actions than
heretofore.
Coming next to the consideration Of
the origin of man, Dr.. Hrinton declares
that ssthere is no trace anywhere Of the
missing hnk, no evidence that man de-
ve1oped ont Of some lower animal by
long series Of slow changes" Nor does
he accept the doctrine OF specific crea-
ton as q scientific explanation. There
Isl third possible theory of the origin Of
man which Dr.. Brinton holds is as good
as another-namely, that called t'evolu-
ton per saltum," or with q jump.
sit is that process, whatever it may
be, which produces sports in plants and
tc1anks' and tgeniuses' in respectable
families. No doctrine Of 'heredity' or
1atavism' or ereversion' can explain these
prodigies o.. monsters, as they happen to
be. A family Of we know not which Of
the higher mammals, perhaps the great
tree ape which then lived in the warm
regions Of central France, may have pro-
duced q few Sports widely different
physically and mentally from their par
ents, and these sports were the ances-
tors Of mankind. This is q theory which
asks for its acceptance no blind faith in
the dogmatic assertions either Of science
religious tradition"
As to where nan first appeared DR..
Brinton says: 4tIn fact, we are limited by
q series Of exclusions to the southern
slope Of that great mountain chain which
in western Europe and Africa
with the Atlas mountains, the Cantabri-
an Alps and the Pyrenees and continues
to the Hinalayas and their eastern ex-
tensions in farther India. Somewhere
along this line in southern Asia or in
southern Europe or in northern Africa
we may confidently say mar first opened
his eyes upon the world about him. Up
to the present time his earliest vestiges
have been exhumed in the extreme west
Of this region, but that may be because
there search has been more diligently
made. but the fact remains that, speak
ing from present knowledge, we know Of
nowhere earlier than in England,
France and the Iberian peninsula."-Re-
view Of Reviews.
Goes Cunning at Ninety-six.
John Walters. who lives about two