The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-09-30
Missing Link
Two Great Scientists to Hunt
for the Ape.Man in Java.


New York, Sept. 2s.-The Journal says:
With the financial assistance of George
| Vanderbilt, an American is going to hunt
for the race of missing links in Java
The explorer is David J. Walters, who
studied paleontoiogy with Mr.. Vanderbilt
at Yale and has frequently discussed the
| fascinating problems of that and the al
| lied sciences with the young millionaire
at Biltmore.
It was in Java that DR.. Eugene Du-
bois, the Dutch surgeon, found the re-
mains Of Pithecanthropus Erectus, the
ape-man who walked erect. After long
examination this was pronounced by the
highest scientific authorities of the world
to be the missing link between man and
the anthropoid apes.
1t is almost certain that where these
remains came from there are others
more complete, from which perhaps the
whole history of the lost race can be
made out. This is the object Of the
American scientists expedition.
An exciting element Of rivalry is given
to the enterprise by the fact that Pro
fessor Ernest Haeckel, of the University
of Jena, the greatest living exponent Of
the doctrine of evolution, is about to
start out on the same quest. It Will be
a race between the two men, who will
carry on their work quite separately.
Mr.. Walters studied at Yale under the
late Professor O. c. Marsh, the most
famous Of American biologists ard pale
ontoIogists. Professor Marsh was
among the eminent scientists who pro-
nounced the Java remains to be those
of a missing link. At that time Mr.. Wal
tiers became inspired by the idea of
searching the country where the bones
were found. and endeavoringp to recon
struct the entire prehistoric race Of miss
ing links. It was a fascinating idea,
the fulilIment of which would be the
most important contribution made since
Darwins day to the history of the evo-
luton of man. Professor Marsh became
interested in Mr.. Walters plan and in
tended to help him to carry it out, when
he was taken il land died.
Some time afterward Mr.. Walters dis
cussed the subject with George Wander
bilt, who was intensely interested in it,
and volunteered to pay all the expenses
of the expedition. The youngest son of
William H Vanderbilt is one of the most
liberal friends of science and learning
among the rich men of America He
has a magnificent collection Of fossils and
geological specimens at Biltmore. his
great home in North Carolina, and has
done much to assist scientific men. He
also maintains a school of forestry at
Fillmore where the science that is to
save American forests from destruction
is taught.
will IVA n n
into a little known country, where saw
ages and Wild beasts abound 1t will be
comnleteIy fitted out to face these diff
ficuIties. 1t will have firearms, tents,
boats, in addition TO an abundance of
scientific instruments.
The work will necessitate a great deal
of digging, in the course Of which pc
culiarly virulent type of malaria will be
encountered. and will call for an able
doctors services. Java has the distinc-
ton Of possessing more apes than any
other in the world. And the expedition
will be very much interested to meet
them.
Mr.. walters who is now in Denver, will
go by way of San Francisco and Hong
Kong. He believes in the theory adj
vanced by Darwin, that man first ap-
peared on a lost continent of which Java
and the Malay peninsula are remnants.
The remains of Pitheea.nthropus were
brought horne to Europe in 1895. They
consist of skull. thigh bone and two
teeth After very long and careful ex-
animation they were admitted by the
leading scientists of the world to belong
to a creature midway between man and
the gArillas, chimpanzees and orang-
outangs-the anthropoid apes