The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1903-03-01
BELIEVES He HAS
FOUND ANCESTORS
Doctor Workman Says Discoveries
Establish Theory of Mans
Descent From Monkey.
DESCRIBES CONNECTING LINKS.
Evidence in Support of His View,
Scientist States, Draws Upon
Geology and Archaeology
for Confirmation.


New Haven Conn, Feb. 2S.-Discoveries
| recently made by Professor J. l.. Workman
| or Yale so far, in the belief Of that
| learned scientist TO establish the theory Of
| mans descent from the monkeys. That the
origin of plant and animal life was well
| within the Arctic Circle aeons ago is the
| hypothesis upon which he IS working.
| Trustees OF the endowment fund recently
| established by Andrew Carnegie have voted
| grant to the department of paleontology
| OF Yale for the use Of Professor Workman
| in pursuing his Investigations
Professor Workman has taken up the
work dropped by Professor othnlel c.
Marsh, curator of the Peabody museum,
| when he died several years ago. Last sum
mer Doctor Workman renewed the research
| wark in the Bridger Basin. Wyoming, AMI
| the result of his findings there has aston
ished himself and his associates.
paper recently prepared by Doctor
Workman for a scientific journal discusses
| the theory of mans carly home or, rather,
| the region of the universe from which the
| ancestors OF man Were dispersed. Divested
of the scientific technicalitips. an outline
| lows:
The ancestors of man were among the
process yet undetermined fully from sim
ian progenitor. Changes OF food and eli
matte influences wrought a change in the
prehensile abilities of the developing SINH
| an. and the disuse of members OF his body
changed them in strength in contour and
| in length; for instance. shortening the arm
| and recasting the hand. In other words the
heredty of disuse is responsil le for many
of the physical changes seen in the deye-
oped descendants of the primates.
RESULTS OF INVESTIGATION.
Discussing the results of his Investigation
in the Marsh collection and the BridSer
Basin monkey. which Doctor Workman
found in the summer of 1862. he says
With the assistance OF. additional ma
terial / am able to determine not only the
lemuroids of Wyoming. but their true rela-
ton to the other ,primates. l find that three
Of the main divisions of the primates are
here included. One section is represented
by that very remarkable animal known as
the aye aye. which now lives in the dense
tropical forests Of Madagascar. 1t was long
thought to be Il rodent, but upon more care
ful study and dissection proved to be a pri-
mate, with rodentlike or gnawinv inclsors.
Another section is represented, by the
little monkeyllke tarsier Tor tarsier spec
TRUMP of the East Indian archipelago. Here
again We have in the eocene of Wyoming
an extinct species that is astonishingly like
its living representative in Borneo
The third section Of these prinates ex
hibits close approximation to the living
CONCLUSIVE that the one has descended from
the other. This IN itself IS great gain to
our knowledge of simian history and sets
at rest much idle speculation upon the
origin OF this important part of the ape
fauna; Such relationship has never before
Appearance OF PRIMATFs.
these ,prinates in North America was very
stase of the eocene, and it is striking CO.
incidence that approximately the same
forms appear in beds of exactly correspond
chronism stop with the apes; it applies to
nearly all the other types of eocene NAM
malta of the Northern Hemisphere and to
the accompanying fora, as well.
These facts can be explained only on
the hypothesis that there was a common
center from which these plants and animals
present continental masses were essentially
the same in eocene time as now, and that
the north polar region then enjoyed a sub
tropical climate. as is abundantly proved BY
fossil plants We are forced to the conciu-
sion that this common center of dispersion
The evidence in support of this view, Doc
tor Workman states draws upon geology
and archaeology for confirmation: In
cyadds and conifers, abundant in quantity
and Of many species, some the ike of which
are found now in California. II Alaska and
SpitZbergen also are such rema MS.
From the North Pole the cooling process
worked southwark toward the, equator.
scendants of many of which are traceable
in their migra tory southern progress. have
been found well within . the Apct,s nc ciTele
connection between the Western and the
Eastern hemisphere2 at or near the equa-
tor. Hence. this land connection must have
been at the north.
Doctor Workman is firmly OF the opinion
that the ancestors Of man are to be found
Continent. He states 1t az his belief that
much Eight could be thrown upon this i'm
portant question IL the complete skeleton of
an ape of the PuLjab could be obtained for
study and comparison by scientists.
1.-The ancestors of the human family may
be said 20 have been virtually trapped into
the peninsular projections of Southern El-
rope and Southern Asia. which seemed to
offer to them avenues of escape from the
oncoming cold.
These were false avenues of escape. ana
led them to make the battle for existence
there, to search for new foods. to learn new
modes of life. to change habits. to become
accustomed to the disuse OF certain mem
bers, etc.
but with the discovery of fire. the mon
key ceased and man began. The discovery
of fire was probably accidental. 1t may
have been discovered in some volcanic re-
gion, or lightning may nave given them
their first sight OF fire. bur the most nrohn-
BILE theory is that the usa of pyrites and
flint stones taught them the use Of the fire.
Repetition hundreds OF times of fires set
in the dry grass and leaves may have
taught them that the striking of pyrites
caused heat. and In time experimentation
with 1t taught them to use fire.
Fire made cosmopolitan existence pos
sible and dispersion began. The cradle OF
the human race may have beer in the
Mediterranean or in the region of the In
dian Ocean. 1t was somewhere along the
northern coast line Of the great southern
barrier about the close OF the eocene period
or the beginning of the glacial epoch