New-York tribune., 1901-01-28
TO SEARCH FOR ~MISSING LINK"
INTEREST AT YALE IN THE EXPEDITION TO
JAYA-WHAT MAY BE FOUND.

New-Haven, Conn. Jan. q (specIaD.-The profess
and instructors in the Yale Scientific School and
the Peabody NJ lseun are greatly interested in the
proposed plan of European scientists 10 visit Java
next summer in search of fossil remains Of the
Pithecanthropus, ape-man, the discovery OF
some OF which made a few years ago by DR..
Du Bois, military surgeon in the Dutch army.
Professor c. z. Beecher. curator Of the Peabody
Museum, when asked whether Yale would send a
man TO join the expedition, said that such plan
in mind yet, owing the lack OF funds
IN the hands of the university for such a purpose
Professor Beecher said however: I'VE should much
like TO send party TO Java join in the inyestiga-
lions TO be pushed there, / believe that impor-
tant scientific discoveries will probably be made
IN that quarter Of the world. All through that
region there must be a considerable number of
fossil remains. and If there is any place where the
missing link be discovered it should be there
1t would cost a great amount of money. however,
10 ut out even one man for the trip. and while We
should like greatly 10 do H. hardly as yet see
way it,"
The late Professor o. c. Marsh, Of Yale, for
years the leading paeontoogist Of the country put
himself record over twenty years ago in the
statement that there such a thing as a miss
ing link" and when the Pithecanthropus Of Du Bois
was discovered he among the first to accept
the theory propounded, and 10 support Du Bois IN
his contentious. Professor Marsh wrote ten years
ago:
In the East where the large anthropoid apes still
the circumstances are favorable 70 the discovery
and Africa offer the most inviting fields to ex-
plorers.
One Of the Yale professors says regarding the
subject:
We know little or nothing as yet regarding the
beginnings OF human life on the earth, hut we can
be reasonably sure that such beginnings are 10 be
IN such regions as We know gave birth 10 the ape
tribe Man rose from the ape through long
sands OF years probably advanced with hardly de-
cipherable changes each generation. The change
came about IN probably a small area, and by cir
cumstanees OF which we. Of course. can now have
number OF members OF a tribe, who passed DOWN
the brains and the experience their descendants
vantage than their comrades and through the
srsonsi increase IN the use of the hands the
s6out stiA further enhancement in the use Of tho
peTIence from the brain to the hands and i hack
again. psychological education entirely the apes
higher brain development. and then to a condition
Of body and brain that IS little removed from man
The erect posture of the Pithecanthropus found
of his development used his arms much as the
savage man does now. and had entirely abandoned
Pithecenthropus itself as discovered by Dubois
earnest hope OF scientists everywhere thai the in
vestigations 10 be pursued viii bring forth some
When DE Bois showed ' his Pithecanthropus fos-
sils s IN Europe after he returned from Java Pro-
tnitted 10 that scientists confidence. Professor
sfoasht oEef By pu Boa and assured ahq hh he
SELF or their genuineness at While other
scientists. notably at Berlin and Edinburgh de-
clareo either the femur 20 be human both sl1ull
and femur human, Marsh declared himself on the
side OF Du Bois. and he was afterward Joined by
the majority Of paleontoogists. The main objec-
tions brought against pu BOis's discovery were
founded on the ground that the skull was found
come metres away from the teeth and leg bone
and looked older. Professor Marsh, in HIS remarks
on the fossils, expressed his establishment at the
signs Of great age IN the specimens They were
Thoroughly petrihed," he says, land the matrfx
about them was OF solid rock, most difficult OF re-
Inoval'' Professor Marsh put them at once Ia the
Pliocene and not the Post-Tertiary period and
stated Of them: IAN the remains are certainly
anthropoid, and IL any are human the antiquity OF
extends back into the Tertiary, and hs affini-