The Washington times., 1919-08-31

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"There were giants in the earth in
those days" And in all the LEGENDS
Of all the nations Of the world there persist
stories Of gigantic men. Frazer. IN his
Golden Bough," and Spencer, in his dis
cussion OF myths, both point out that q
tradition, no matter how seemingly impos-
sible, usually has its basis in solid fact
even though that fact be exaggerated and
distorted. The mind Of man is incapable Of
conceiving anything original; It must first
have its basis Of fact upon which to build
Extraordinary confirmation Of the text
in Genesis so widely quoted and justifea-
ton for this widespread belief in giants,
has recently come into existence through
the studies Of various expeditions upon
fossil remains, and particularly where
mankind is concerned, BY the American
Museum Belgian Expedition, under DIS.
Lang and Chaplin, who have Just returned
frum the Congo region Of West Africa with
various collections Of the culture Of the
pygmies, the oldest existing human race
which inhabits that region.
Naturally, the expedition could not
shoot, trap and secure tie skins ana
skeleton Of TIE little negroes, but they dld
secure and bring back model plaster casts.
photographs ana drawings from which 8
group Of these most interesting humans
has been modelled ard set up n tie Han
Of Nan.
The observations Of Drs. Lang ana
Chaplin have aroused much discussion IN
scientific circles concerning the whole Of
pygmyism IA nature generally.
And tie astonishing conclusions haze
been reached that every form Of iife %
earth. intending man, begun IN littlcnsss.
reached an apex Of Eiantism and. win very
few exceptions, Is now on the downward
grade again. perhaps to pysmyism.
For instance. Pithecanthropus, the dawn
man, has been discovered to have been q
pygmy what Is called the cephalic
measure Of his skuIl-that Is the contents
in cubic inches-Was only forty-hYe His
skeleton and skull continued to increase.
eliminating "a the Heidelberg giant Of Ger
many, the largest human being who ever
existed, whose cephalic index was 100 or
more, and who stood most probably eight
to ten feet high The dawn man was prob
ably not more than four feet high. To-day
the human skull is reduced to an average
Of seventy-hye on the cephaiic index. and
the average taIlest frame Is six feet.
From Pithscanthropus Erectus 70 the
Neanderthal giant was s5O.00O years The
giants died out approximately 1900 years
ago. Man has, therefore. shrunK q quarter
from his highest point during $4,000 years.
The most useful Of the domestic animals.
the horse, started out 2.500O0O years ago
as a tiny foot long little animal who was.
except for certain differences in hOofs. a
miniature replica Of certain breeds Of
horse of to-day. II took him almost
3 900 900 years to grow up to the size Of the
gigantic horses Of the Pleistocene age,
which were almost twice the height Of the
Percheron Of to-day, which is now our big
gest horse. But these instances Of small
bulk increasing in size to giantness, then
declining again toward The original proper
tions, runs through the whole animal king
dom, including the insects.
Ipsntness was caused, il we follow the
conclusions Of Professor osborn's new
work, "The Origin and Evolution Of Life"
by a gradual increase in the size and ca
aacity Of the pituitary and thyroid glfnds
in al genera Of animals
To 90 back to the horse.
The hrst horse was Eohippus, Of Lower
Eocene times in Europe, which migrated
across Asia to western North America, one
foot high, with four toes. It's successor was
Mesohippus, Of Lower oligocene times,
two feet high, with three toes. It was fol-
lowed by Moerihippus, of Miocene times,
three feet high and with three toes, which
did not touch the ground as in the case
Of the former and were functionless. These
we're followed BY varied species Of horses
e ths genus Equus. ranging from PliOcsne
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