Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-11-23


allied, and then a new heterodoxy
raised It's head That WAS the phase we
seemed to have reached now Il can
not cite more slawart or distinguished
representative of the orthodox opinion
OF today than Professor Boyd Dawkins
OF Manchester. In his opinion the his
tory of man does not extend beyond the
fleistoeane period-the phase of the
earth's history which Immediately pre-
cedes the one in which we live He ac-
cepts the fossil man of Java-Pithcean-
thropus-a being with brain little
more than half the size of a modern
mans, as representative of mansliad at
the beginning of the Pleistocene; before
the end Of that period men OF moderu
type appeared Men who have
studied the transformations effected
during the Pleistocene period have
formed varying estimates of It's dura-
tion. but we may safely adopt as a
moderate figure the 100000 years given
by Professor Sollas at Il meeting of this
association in 1900 We may accent.
then, as the orthodox opinion of TODAY
that the dawn of the very earliest form
of humanity lies 100000 years behind us.
For representative of modern hetero-
doXY--as far as relates to the antiquity
of man-we cannot do better than visit
the Royal Natural History Museum in
Brussels and follow the guidance of M.
Rutot NJ Rutot is convinced
that he mas traced man, by means of
| his eolithic culture, not only to tho
commencement of the Pleistocene. but
| into and through the two long geologi-
cal periods which preceded the Pleisto-
cene-the Pliocene and Miocene-and
| even well into the formations of tho
| still older period. the Oiigocene. In NJ
Rutots opinion the origin of mankind
must be assigned to a time rs early
| the Oligocene period. Professor Sollas
| has made provisional estimate of
| 100000 years for the Piocene, and 1900
| ooc for the Miocene. on this crude es-
innate the heterodox. opinion as to the
antiquity of man must be placed at over
| 100000 years. 1t Is only Just to NJ
| Rutot to state that he would by no
means agree to the estimates given by
Professor NSollas."
If. DIR. Keith thinks, we search the
present world for the type of man who
| is most likely to serve as a common
| ancestor for both negro and European
we find the nearest approach to the OBJ
| iect of our search in the aboriginal Aus
greater degree than any other living
race the characters of that common
| stock from which both European and
| negro arose. The evolution of man pro-
| eeeds at slow rate. Were the prehis-
| torie Britons to come amongst us now
/ dressed in our modern garb. they would
| pass unnoticed as fellow citizens How
/ long would ii take to evolve the African
| on the one hand and the European on
| the other from a common stock-Aus-
| traloid we suppose in form? DR.. keith's
| own opinion is that the whole length of
| the Pleistocene-a period we shall say of
| 100000 years-is not more than sufficient
| After an Interesting discussion of the
| evidence afforded by fossil remains DIR.
| Keith concluded; Il, for one, am con-
| WINGED that we have followed him al,
| most unchanged to at east the middle
| of the Pleistocene, when we find him
| accompanied by another form of man
| almost as distinct from him as the
| gorilla is from the ehimpanzee. Still
| further back, at the beginning of the
| Pieistocene, we find at least two forms
| of men-the Observation-Disclosures of Hell
/ delberg and the small-braned man of
| Java-but the representatives of modern
| man at this early period we do not
| know. 1t does seem to me, taking al,
| the scraps of evidence at our disposal.
| the slow rate of human evolution. and
the great blanks in the geological record
| into account, that a man as high as the
1 Australoid of today was then in exist
| ence but l cannot bring myself to be-
| lieve that human individuals as highly
| evolved as those discovered by Profess
/ sor Ragazzoni were in existence at an
early part of Pliocene period.
| 'The problem of mans antiquity is
| not yet solved. The picture I wish to
| leave in your minds is, that in the dis
| tant past there was not one kind but a
| number of very different kinds of men
| in existence. all OF which have become
| extinct except that branch which has
| given origin to modern man. On the i'm
| perfect knowledge at present at our dis
posa it seems highly probable that man
! as know him now took on his human
| characters near the beginning of the
| Pliocene period. How long ago that is
must be measured. as Professor Boyd
| Dawkins insists. by the changes which
| the earth and living things have under
| gone. and yet il is only human to try
| to find means of measuring that pc
| riod In a term of Years, and the esti-
mates at hand give an antiquity of at
| least a million and half of years, -
Manchester Guardian.