New-York tribune., 1901-01-20
SEEKING THE "MISSING LINK"

The departure of Professor Ernst Haeckel from
Germany to Java last autumn, to follow up the
discovery made by Dubois five or six years be-
fore. has excited the liveest interest among
naturalists. And Americans and Europeans
evinCe an eager desire to visit the East Indies
for the same purpose. The theory that man and
the ape had common progentor derives its
chief support from the general progress from
low types to higher ones in the long chain of
animal life revealed by the fossils. The close
structural resemblances between the two species
are significant, of course, but not nearly so con-
vincing is the whole trend of development
from the simplest mousk 10 the most perfectly
organized mammal Moreover. there are much
wider gaps in the series here and there than
that between man and the anthrOpoid ape
Nevertheless. II is especially desirable TO bridge
the latter interval by finding intermediate FORMS
because It is against this particular point in the
line OF their ancestry that the prejudices OF
anti-evolutionists directed.
Dubois exhumed a part Of a skull. thigh
bone and two molars. Although these frag-
ments found on different occasions they
were recovered from the same stratum and had
lain at the same level Dubois himself believed
that they all belonged TO one animal; but. Of
course. this suppOsiton. upon which a part OF
his argument depends. is not we'll justified
II the bones In immediate Juxtaposition
in the soil There is a well defined proportion
between the different portions OF a skeleton all
through the animal creation. And one reason
why these specimens from Java are regarded as
the representatives Of hitherto unknown
species is that the skull Is too big for an ape
with such leg is indicated by the femur and
too small for a man with thigh OF that length.
II, then. the skull and fcmur belonged 10 diff
ferent creatures. this piece of logic Is worth
less.
Again, taking only the skull into consideration
a good deal Of diversity OF opinion has been
expressed by experts. Sir William Turner.
leading English anatomist, inclined to the be-
lief that it mans although the oldest
human remains yet found date back only to the
middle Pieistocene. whereas the fossils secured
by Dubois imputed to the Pliocene perhaps
million years earlier VIrchow on the other
hand. pronounced the skull an apes while
Marsh. the great American paleontologist. united
with Haeckel and other high authorities In
adopting Dubois's conclusion that the specimen
belonged to an entirely new species. intermediate
between man and the are. The preponderance
Of opinion is probably in favor of this view but
the matter is still subject of dispute
Now 1t IS easy to perceive what would be the
effect. under these circumstances. II several ad-
dtioEa specimens should be discovered in the
same stratum. and especially If a more nearly
complete skeleton should be found Experts
woUId thus he enabled to decide positively be-
tween the conflicting theories hitherto advanced.
1t would then be obvious whether the thigh bone
and skull previously exhumed were related to
each other or not and whether the skull
malformed representative of a type already
known or normal member of entirely dis
tinct species. Should it he concluded that the
creature was an ape. II would in all probability
prove to be unique in important respects II It
turned out 10 be man. then evidence would be
afforded that the race has a far greater an
tiquity than has ever been demonstrated. And
If the verdict OF Dubois, Marsh and Haeckel were
fully conirmed-if "Pithecanthropus erectus'
were able to read his title clear to being the
missing link between man and the ape-the
event would be one of profound scientific and
popular interest. No wonder that so many
naturalsts wishing that they might go to
lava YEAR