Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1910-06-08

Worth While.
Oxford University, England, June z
Colonel Theodore Roosevelt deliver
ed the following lecture on biological
Analogies In History" at Oxford uni
versity:
An American who. in response tt
such an invitation as l have received
speaks III this university Of ancient re-
nown 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
in other lands.
Moreover. these associations are nc
stronger in the men of English stock
than in those who are not. My PEG.
pie have been for eight generations in
America. but in one thing l 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 lrishman,
who had come to Oxford in 1.-The spa
cious days Of great Elizabeth" would
have felt far more alien than l, their
descendant, now feel.
PaIeontoIoey History.
When dealing with the changes, cata-
clysmic or otherwise, which divide one
period of archaeological history from
another we can sometimes assign
causes and again we cannot even guess
at them. In the case of single species
or of faunas Of very restricted locali-
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 group Of huge herbivores
with bodily size such that they need
ed a vast quantity of food and with
teeth so weak or so peculiar that but
one or two kinds Of plants could fur
nish this food.
Again, we now know that the most
deadly foes of the higher forms Of life
are various lower forms Of life, such
as 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 ..
certain baleful flies.
In Africa there is a terrible genus Of
poison fly, each species acting as the
host Of microscopic creatures which
are deadly to certain OF the higher
vertebrates. One of these species.
though harmless to man. is fatal to
all domestic animals, and this although
harmless to the closely related wild
kinsfolk of these animals.
Another is fatal to man himself be-
ing the cause of the sleeping sick
ness" which in many large districts
has killed out the entire population.
OF course the development or the ex-
tension Of the range of any such in
sects and any one of many other
causes which we see actually at work
around us would readily account for
the destruction of some given species
or even for the destruction of sew
eral species in limited area Of coun-
try.
When whole faunal groups die out
over large areas the question Is diff
ferent and may or may not be suscep-
tible of explanation with the knowl-
edge we actually possess.
In the old arctogeal continent, for
instance, in what is now Europe, Asia
and North America. the glacial period
made a complete but, Of course, ex-
plicable change in the faunal life of
the region. At one time the continent
held rich and varied fauna. Then
a period of great cold supervened, and
a different fauna succeeded the first.
The explanation of the change is OBJ
vious.
"psath" Of Civilization.
When we speak of the death" of a
tribe, a nation or a civilization the
term may be used for either one or
two totally different processes, the
analogy with what occurs in biological
history being complete. Certain tribes
Of savages-the Tasmanians, for in