Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1899-11-30
MAN AGES HENCE
Changes Likely to Occur in Our Con-
ditions.
Science Foresees Human Beings as Giants
Living $50 Years.

or science. To learned savants in OuI
various scientific institutions a writer
in the Boston Transcript has lately ad.
dressed this question: Looking as fal
into the future as your minds eye car
see. what changes are likely to occur
TO our brains, bodies and environ
ments?'
Man of the distant future SAID
Professor Otis Mason. the great au.
thority on racial problems, will oc.
cupy a belt near the Equator The
earth is cooling, and as a result the
Esquino must leave the polar regions
Later the Yankee must quit New Eng
land. All savage peoples will be elimi-
mated from the earth. The entire hui
man race will be brunette The blond
people We're once brunettes and became
as they are through some process OF
interbreeding. The convolutions of the
brain Will be larger and will admit a
much greater blood flow to carry on
the commerce of the mind. Man will
be stronger physically. His hands and
feet will be much smaller. Labor
saving machinery will reduce physical
labor, but an increase Of athletics will
ance of small printing type will leave
the eyes much stronger. The ear can
never take the place of the eye until
some other heavenly body can be sub
stituted for the sun. The hat will
vanish and the hair will improve.
THE home of this age will be a great
communal dwelling where all people of
the same kinship will live under the
same roof-children. parents. grand
parents, uncles. aunts and cousins.
Rapid transit will eliminate sky-scrap-
ers. Increased naturalization of life
will render cooperation more neces-
sary. Separate embellishments, such
as the corner grocery, will be consider
ed absurdities of bygone days, as will
also the keeping of servants. Chem
ically pure drinking water will free the
cells of the body from mineral matter
and permit man to live to the age of
MethuSelah. Compressed foods will
never come into use. If they should
the stomach would atrophy. The death
of an infant will be an exception,
whereas today one-half of the human
race never mature. The deadly mi
crobe will suffer the fate of such dan
sStlbdS ItSlS lldNt
been made extinct. People who spread
disease will be considered as enemies
to mankind-punishab by severe
penalties. Dress will be more perfect
~ adapted to comfort. health. longevity
and beauty. 1t will never be deprived
of ornamentation, and women and men
will never dress alike"
Man will lose his wisdom teeth ut
terly." said Curator Lucas, the anato-
mist of the National museum. but
modern systems of dentistry will prob
ably save the other teeth. 1t is pos
sible that there may be found the
germ of a third set to be cut after the
disappearance of the second. Mann
mails far back in the ages had a third
set of teeth and man shows Indications
of the same tendency. | might add
that there is danger of the human race
becoming homely rather than beautiful
as result of the growing tendency Of
man to marry for intelligence rather
than beauty"
That man of the distant future would
be minus a little toe was the only
prophecy ventured by DR.. d. S. Lamb.
the pathologist of the Medical museum.
Dr. Theo. n. Gill, the eminent biolo-
gist of the Smithsonian. said that the
wisdom teeth would disappear as would
possibly the veriform appendix and the
little toe. Man himself" said he, lis
a striking evidence of the fact that he
was not specially created. He is not
only like the ape, but bears the i'm
press of many inferior stocks. The ap-
pendix, for instance. was inherited
from ancestors to whom it was i'm
portant and came to us through the
apes from primitive forms somewhat
like marsupials. 1t may disappear to
slight extent. The gray matter OF the
brain may increase somewhat in bulk,
but cerebration is not dependent upon
size of brain. Some of the most in
tellectual have small brains. 1t is pos
sible that the little toe will disappear.
but doubtful. 1t has its use in giving
greater basis to the foot. l doubt
whether there will be an increase In
stature. especially since the future IN
tcllectuality will become more and
more predominant over brute force.
HYGIENE and sanitary progress VIII
have an appreciate effect upon the
average length of human life. but
longevity dependent upon Improved
physical conditions cannot be antici-
pated. I doubt if the hair will de-
crease. The more civilized have a
thicker growth upon their faces thar
the lower orders of men. Undoubtedly
there will be many changes which can
not be foretold.'
THE man of the remote future. salo
Professor Elmer Gates. the psyche
phycist. '.win develop into creature
as superior to man. Zoologically. as
man today is superior to the quadru-
mana. His normal span of life VIII bt
$50 years. with chance for greater
prolongation. His head will not p'
relatively larger. but his brain corte>
will be thicker and he will possess II
| his brain and other nervous centers
much greater number of cell layers
| Indeed. his brain and spinal cord VII
have developed most The number o
| fibre tracts connecting cell groups II
the former will have greatly multlplleu
Individual cells will be much NOR
complex. as will also the various sens
organs. All bodily organs not needed
will have disappeared. This creature
will be much larger and stronger thai
| man is today. His eyes Will De large
and more mobile in expression.
Il believe that acuteness of tn
fx...