Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1901-05-19
MEN AND MONKEYS.
No More Doubt as to which Existed
Eirst--Mcn, According to
New Theory.

New Theory.
Sensitive persons who object to be-
ing confronted with their poor rela-
+iors may find comfort in the theory
advanced by Prof. Klaatsch, of Hei-
dclberg university, and summarized
by our Belgian correspondent, says
the London Standard. We are no
longer bound to believe that man is
descended from apes. The mystery |
of evolution has been cleared up, the |
search for the missing link is rem
dered futile by the learned doctors |
discovery of the proper significance
of muscle in the upper part of his
thigh. The short strand, as one part
of this is called. is attached to the
fibula, and is fitted with a special
nerve. After several years of inves-
tigation, Herr Klaatsch has con-
vinced himself that this ''short
strand" is a rudimentary form of
muscle common to considerable
number of mammals, such as mar
supials, carnivores and many rodents.
In fact, it is very frequently present;
but only anthropoid apes and pre-
hensile tailed American monkeys pos
sess it in the same modified condition
as man. Some climbing creatures in
deed have entirely lost it, such as the
lemurs of the old world. That indi-
| Gates that the muscle cannot be serv-
iceable for life on trees-its modifica-
tion being the result of dsuse when
| the progressive creature begins to
| IL ,;rl+ "a = .,,L
ance, common indeed to man and
apes, but derived from some remote
mammalian ancestor So far from
proving the ape to be father of the
man, it suggests the contrary view.
Both can claim common ancestry
in some long-eXtinct mammalian
form, but that is all. Though the
savants may be right in inferring,
from the fragmental remains of the
Javan pithecanthropus, that it was
either the most manlike of apes or
the most apelike of men, the creature
does not supply the missing link in a
pedigree beginning in a simian and
ending in homo sapiens.
The professor also tells us that the
existing apes are for the most part
degenerate forms. Are we, then, to
reverse the line of pedigree. and de.
clare that an old-time self indulgent
race of men have degenerated into
apes. as little Tom was taught, ac-
cording to the Water Babies?" But
to check any human conceit which he
may seem to have encouraged, Herr
Klaatsch informs us that it is quite
wrong to consider man, as a nam.
NAL. the most perfectly developed in
every way. That is not true of his
teeth and limbs; only in the matter
of brain is he facile princeps. Well
it is n relief to get this admitted
and as for the other organs, we cor
cede much to animals which have tc
get their living by cracking nuts ol
J gnawing bones; we do not profess tC
leap like tigers, run like deer, ol
climb like gibbons. In all these we
grant the advantage to the savage
and are aware that an edentulous OF
= nearly toothless being is to be the
ultimate result of civilization. But
we suggest, is not the professor
building up n very large superstruc
ture on rather small base? Hi,
E argument, though it comes to diff
= ferent conclusion, reminds us of the
= famous controversy in which Huxley
T. and Owen once figured. as to whether
l the ape did or did not possess a small
structure called a hippocampus in it,
!, brain, for on that depended whether
J, or no the ape was the ''long-los
+, brother" Of man. 1t is doubtful, in
! deed, whether the professor has
|. proved more than the most thorough
= going evolutioniSt is ready to grant
5 The latter does not assert. so far as
i we know, that man is desccndeC
a a from gorilla. or a chimpanzee, or al
: orang-outang. He holds rather that
+ as sometimes happens in the socia
6 scale, one branch of family ha
d greatly risen. while all the Others
= have remained children of Gibeon
Charles Darwin stated this quite
clearly in THE Descent of Man." anC
it is still generaly accepted. AS al
- evolutionist. he admitted a kinShiI
between all mammals, since thei
:, pedigrees had a common origin
~ Sometimes the parting had been yer,
q remote, sometimes more recent. TIL,
n platyrhine and catarhine monkey
are cousins of a distant degree, whil
=. man is nearer one of the latter, hu
y nothing like cousin-german. II
r fact, to an evolutiouist, it woulC
n seem strange for ancestors to b
u iourishing side by side with thei
offspring, for nature works yer.
slowly and will not be hurried owe
the origin of species.