Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1904-05-04
WHERE HUMAN LIFE ORIGINATED

Contention that the Cradle of Mankind
Was in the Polar Regions.
G.. r. Wieland, of the Peabody Mu-
scum, Yale University, has a paper in
the American Journal of Science that
is attracting much attention among
scientific workers. He has collected
many facts, most of them revealed by
geological science, to show the prob
ability that the origin of life occurred
In the polar regions. and also that
the climate changes which affect life
increase toward the poles, and there
fore that polar influences have had
much more to do with differenliating
life into many forms than equatorial
influences.
AS the continents are grouped
around the north pole. it is reasonable
TO suppose that the northern cirtumS
polar area has been. ever since the
in the paleozoic rocks, the main center
from which animal and plant lie have
radiated, and Mr. Wieland adduces
much evidence to show that this the
DRY is correct These deductions are
by no means news, but they have never
before been fortified in one composition
by so large an array of testimony as
that which Mr.. Wieland has collected
in his careful paper.
The fundamental idea on which this
theory of the origin of life is based
is not difficult to understand. Some
conditions of stability must have been
necessary to the beginnings and per-
petuation of plant and animal life. If
the globe was once molten, as phys
icists from Kant and La Place to Kei-
vim have declared, lunar tides of ire
mendous power must have been pro-
duced at the equator, though they were
weak at the poles Sufficient crystal
sta bility TO make hot water life pos
STOLE must have first appeared at the
poles; A great interval of time must
have elapsed between the first appear
ance OF crystal stability at the poles
and similar conditions at the equator,
able to resist the enormous attractive
power of the moon and sun 1t may
have taken 100000 years for the
temperature and stability necessary
even to hot water life to move slowly
from the poles to the equator. Thus
the conditions favorable to life must I
first have appeared in the polar rel
gions.
1t is well known that the deep ocean7
and the continents have occupied relV
lively their present position far BAGS
in geological times. and the great ana
tiquity of the principal elements of life
in the oceanic islands testifies to the
difficulty of dispensing the higher types
of life across ocean barriers ana the
almost impossibility of such dispersion
of the vertebrates.
But all evidence points to the for
mer existence of wide land routes be-
tween the northern polar areas and the
| great land masses to the south. and
the facts of vertebrate distribution in
| the northern hemisphere in mesozoic
| and tertiary times can be satisfactorily
explained only on the hypothesis of
a common polar origin of the principal
ancestral stocks. which then dispersed
outward from the polar area and
/
This is a very brief statement of
the hypothesis which the writer forth
| fies by voluminous quotations from the
record the rocks have preserved. The
reader is referred to Mr.. Wieland's pa
per for the evidence that the rich veg
citation of the various horizons repre-
scented within the arctic area forms the
original soul e of most of the plant
families that we know, and that as we
proceed farther south we find in the
re ks forms u life that are now preva-
lent on the surface nearer the equator.
Tie climate and the consequent life
which existed in the Dakotas and wy
oming in the eocene period were those;
that are now found in Florida. New
York Sun.