The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1910-06-09
AT
OXFORD, ENG.
THE BIRTH RATE QUESTION.
Calls England Greatest Empire and
Declares the Man Who Tries
Is the One Worth While

| Special to The Comet
London, June 6-Former Presiden
Theodore Roosevelt and Mrs. RCose
welt were entertained at luncheon to
day by King George and Queen Mary
at Marlborough house.
RooSevelt'S Lecture :
Colonel Theodore Roosevelt deliver
ed he following lecture on Biological
Analogies In History" at oxford uni
versily:
AD American who. in response to
such an invitation as | have received
speaks in this university of ancient re-
uown cannot but feel with peculiar
vividness the interest and charm of
his surroundings, fraught as they are
with thousand associations. Your
great universities and all the memories
that make them great are living reali-
Ties in the minds of scores of thou
sands of men who have never seen
them and who dwell across the seas
III other lands.
Moreover, these associations are no
stronger in the men of English stock
than in those who are not My peo-
pie have been for eight generations In
america, but in one thing ! am like
the Americans of tomorrow rather
than like many of the Americans of
today, for have in my veins the blood
of men who came from many different
European races. The ethnic makeup
of our people is slowly changing, so
that constantly the race tends to be-
come more and more akin to that of
those Americans who, like myself, are
of the old stock. but not mainly of
English stock.
Yet think that as time goes by mu-
tual respect, understanding and SYM
pathy among the English speaking
peoples grow greater and not less.
Any of my ancestors, Hollander or
Huguenot, Scotchman or freshman.
who had come to Oxford in 1.-The spa
cious days of great Elizabeth" would
have felt far more alien than |, their
descendant, now feel.
PaleontoIogy History. ~
When dealing with the changes, cata-
clysmic or otherwise, which divide one
period of archaeological history from
another we can sometimes assign
and again we cannot even guess
at them. In the case of single species
or of faunas of very restricted local.
ties the explanation is often self evil
dent.
A comparatively slight change in the
amount of moisture in the climate.
with the attendant change in vegeta-
ton. might readily mean the destruc-
ton of a group of huge herbivores |
with bodily size such that they need
ed vast quantity of food and with |
teeth so weak or so peculiar that but |
one or two kinds of plants could fur
1ish this food.
Again, we now know that the most
1eadly foes of the higher forms of life
ire various lower forms Of life, such |
rs insects or microscopic creatures
conveyed into the blood by insects.
There are districts in South America
where many large animals, wild and
domestic, cannot live because of the
presence either of certain ticks or of
ertain baleful flies.
In Africa there is a terrible genus of
POISON fly, each species acting MS the
lost of microscopic creatures which
re deadly to certain of the higher
ertebrates One of these species.
hough harmless to man, Is fatal to
II domestic animals, and this although
to the closely related wild
insfok Of these animals.
Another is fatal to man himself, be-
ng the cause of the sleeping sick
ess," which in many large districts
as killed out the entire population
II course the development or the ex-
ension of the range of any such in
ects and any one of many other
auses which we see actually at work
round us would readily account for
he destruction Of some given species
r even for the destruction of sew
raj species in limited areas of coun-
y.
When whole faunal groups die out
ve' large areas the question is diff
,rent and may or may not be suscep- !
BILE of explanation with the knowl-
lge we actually possess.
In the old arctogeal continent. for
stance. in what is now Europe, Asia
nd North America, the glacial period
ade complete but. of course, ex-
icable change in the faunal life OF
lie region. At one time the continent
I'D rich and varied fauna. Then
period of great cold snpervened, and
different fauna succeeded the first.
he explanation of the change is OBJ Q
GUS.
death" Of Civilization.