The Washington times., 1918-12-25
Man and Monkey 3. Fy ssFFStt ssrTist
The Famous Scientist Assures an
Interested Correspondent Monkeys
Are Degenerate Human Beings.

backward along the course of his
evolution he could not possibly
become either an ape or a monkey,
because the road by which he has
come up is not a branch from any
Of their roads. They started from
a common point and followed iE
some respects parallel but not at
all identical ways.
Paleontology and biology show
that, upon the whole, the evolution
of living beings has always been
toward highest planes. 1t Is true
that degeneration has played a GER
tain part, as shown by Dohrn's
theory. in the changes undergone
by organism. but the effects OF de-
generative changes are funda-
mentally different from those pro-
duced by progressive upward evo-
luton, and degeneration is not to
be regarded as a reverse process of
evolution.
Only parts OF the structure OF an
animal. and not its entire organism,
are effected by degeneration. For
example, moles are degenerate, in
that they have lost the use OF their
organs of vision, and so with the
blind animals dwelling in vast dark
but these creatures have undergone
no such revolution and Teconstruc-
tion as would be necessary to turn
a human being into a monkey.
As the. leaves of the past history
of the earth are turned the investi-
gator reads there a consistent story
OF evolutionary advance. The re-
cessions are local. partial and in
cidental. like the backward slips of
the foot OF a mountain-climber. The
several lines OF development OF the
various species of monkeys and
apes are traceable away back to a
time when man himself was at an
early stage of evolution. but no.
where do they become confused with
the human line.
A point is reached where the
human line and the line which de-
veloped into the anthropoid apes
separated by the splitting up Of
preceding line, in which the poten-
, tialities OF the future man and the
future ape seem to have been min
gled without differentiation, but
from that time onward each fol-
lowed its own way and developed
its own qualities Before that
separation. there was neither man
nor ape; but, nevertheless. there
were monkeys, whose line had
been developed in a still more an
cient time.
These facts must make it evident
to you that your notion that the
monkey is a degenerate branch of
the human family" is untenable.
A race must exist before it can
degenerate.
As 70 your historical and socio-
logical instances, they really do
not at all affect the case. Besides,
where is the proof that whole races
OF men have been driven "to the
life of the wild. in woods and for
ests?" And IL any have ever been
thus driven, is there an iota OF evil
dence that their degeneration has
turned them anatomicaIly or other
wise into monkeys? Nakedness,
unkemptness. ignorance, and bru-
tality are not what make monkeys
monkeys, while. alas! they do not
serve to exclude, men from the
genus homo.
1t is true that races and tribes
OF men rise and sink in the barom-
eter of history according as the at
mosphere OF their environment and
the pressure OF particular circum-
stances affect them. but these are
minor movements. effects of mere
molecular vibrations, convection
currents set up by local intensiflca-
tion OF energy, and they are not to
be classed with the vast progress
sive march OF evolution, stepping
from aeon to aeon.