The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-06-28

The canine tusks of the ancestral ape be-
came diminished as his descendants ceas-
ed using them in warfare, and they were
reduced to level with the others. The
Jaws likewise became smaller and the
teeth crowded together, as are mans.
Intelligence became greater in these
progressive apes as they multiplied, and
their brains grew larger and larger as
they responded to its demands, the skull
expanding all the while. Through such
course of evolution, Ia DR.. GiIl's opinion,
did the descendants of the ape reach the
threshold of mans Eden-so to speak.
AS to when Pithecanthropus finally en-
tered into the realm of manhood. If he
ever did it, only discoveries of human re-
mains or the remains of human handi-
work, enveloped in prehistoric strata, can
prove. Many philologists believe that
the human language must have gone
through processes representing at least
10000 years to have become so widely diff
ferent as at present. The fragment of an
earthen pot has been found in the Nile
delta under layers of silt by at least 1900
annual floods From these and other in
dications it would appear that DIR. Du-
bois' Pithecanthropidae must have lived
at time which may be counted back by
tens of thousands if not millions of
years.
If asked whether or not Pithecanthrop-
us, If ever a reality, made himself under
stood by a systematic language, Prof.
Garner would doubtless say yes. There
are other naturalists, however, who
would say that primitive man most like
~ grunted his wants or his emotions
in monysylla bles. If an inhabitant Of Java
the food of Pitheconthropus was that Of
fered by nature If he indulged in meat
at all there is no reason to believe that
he cured 1t or cut it into chops or outlets
before eating it,
The Pithecanthropidae may have ex-
listed in many parts of the world, or their
domain may have been confined to Java.
If the latter was an island in those days
there might be room for the theory that
some Of the smarter apes living there de-
veloped superior faculties because sepa-
rated from the greater. inferior herd.
Probably never before has an attempt
been made by natUralists to locate the
home of the first primitive man off the
mainland of the old world. Many an
thropologists, harmonizing the story of
Genesis with science, would locate Eden
in Asia, in the valley Of tie Euphrates.
Prof Delitzsch, of the University of
Breslan, lately announced his belief that
it was an ancient Babylonia. Prof Mar
sham Adams, an English Egyptologist
finds a great conformity of early Egyptian
faith to Christianity, and says that the
cradle of the human race must be looked
for in Africa, in the watershed of the
Nile.
If Pithecanthropus was the ancestor of
man intermediate between him and what
the greater number of naturalists would
call his grandfather ape" If the earthly
paradise of this form was in Java, and
| If Java was then Island, as now, the ques-
tion might be asked, did he wait until he
| became man before travelling across Sun
da Strait to Sumatra. and thence over the
Straits of Malta to Asia2 Was he a swim
mer or did ne gave sufficient intellectu-
aitv to float himself across the straits on
a bundle Of dElftwood?