The Washington times., 1919-09-21
ce Explains HOW
Fifteen Million Year.
of Evolutionary
Processes Shaped a
Fish s Head Into
the Thought
By DR.. W. q. BallOu

is perhaps the most impressive fea-
= ture in all nature. Science has just
traced It back to its sourcel
When we note lhe forehead, even in
dog or elephant or other mammal we
pause. impressed with its nobility and
plain potentialides. Within that wall have
eliminated the achievements Of civiliza-
tion. -
In a single Shakespeare
minated the whole evolutionary process Of
language; in Wagner's, the whole evolu-
tiOnary process Of music; in Raphael's,
the whole evolutionary process Of paint
ing; in Michaelangslo's. the whole eVOlu-
tionary process Of sculpture.
when we search the entire history Of q
nation an we can see standing out con-
spicuous above al its-glOry and achieve
ments, as, Tor instance, Greece, Is the sub
lime ana dazzling brow Of blind Homer
blind outWardly, but with stupendous in
ward vision. The brains Of these and Of
all men Of conspicuous eminence in his
tory were very heavy, and their skulls
proportionately large-such as those Of
Beethoven, Kant and schopenhader It
is the law that the average human BRAN
increases in complexity as It increases in
bulk The cells Of intelligence are located
on the eortex, or surface, and hence the
greater number Of cells on the surface Of
the brain, the more 1t is doubled up. or
cOnvoluted. Thus Coll, long ago, explained
great men BY showing the relationship be-
tween the increasing number Of convOlu-
tions and intelligence, impossible without
2 large head.
All Of which, Il Is now maintained, came
from q fshl
For that noble brow We are debtors to
processes Of evolution extending through
q period Of some 1s.OO0.O00 years-al-
though. for that matter. they began MIL
lions Of years farther back in the first
minute appearances Of life on earth.
During the past several years these pro.
cesses-from primitive fishes to man
have been the subject Of exhaustive re-
search BY Dr.. w. K. Gregory in the labora-
tory OF evolution Of the American Museum
Of Natural History Of New York. Dr..
Gregory has Just published q preliminary
paper, with Illustrations, in Natural His
tory"
His effort was "centsred chiefly upon the
evolution, from hsh to man, Of the bony
elements around the orbits, or eye sock
cts" It Is the frontal, or brow bone,
however, and the processes By which It
was at last so perfectly formed that at
tracts the attention Of the inquisitiVe.
Place your forefngeT in the inner corner
Of the eye, against the nose, and you will
note the position Of the lachrymal bone,
which Is perforated by the tear duct,
through which you weep.
Il was this particular bone IN WHICH DR..
Gregory was most interested and how it
came to be so small and momentOus to
man and mammals, when in primitive
fishes Il was merely one Of i've bones sur
rounding the eye Although It Is Of i'm
portance, particularly as infants, that we
are able to weep cOpiOusly, with ample
canal drainage, It is, to my mind, OF vastly
greater moment that the brow bone covers
the rest Of the eye7sOcket, and that In the
centre, back Of TIM eyeball, there is an
other orifce which connects the eye with
the brain, through which we get our total
conceptions of sight.
DR.. Gregory begins with the head Of
Osteolepis a fish that lived in DeVOnian
times, some 100000 years ago. Accord
ing TO his diagram this fish was indeed a
lOWbrOw, since the frontal is indicated by
a very short and narrow strip OF bone
above the eye. No brain here, just an an
imal controlled by a nervous system.
Three million years later there appeared
seymouria, a primitive reptile, also brain
less, with our bone a little longer. No
improvement or enlargement OF the
frontal whatever is noted in several mil
lion Of years following. A later primitive
reptile, mycterasaUrus, shows smaller
frontal bone, with no indication OF the
coming forehead. During the next several
million years the frontal bone seems al
most to have vanished and is not shown at
all on the diagram Of the skull OF the
mammal-like reptile, ictidOpsis.
Some three million years ago mammal
emerged out Of the reptile class which had
reared themselves on their four legs for
faster movements on land This mammal
was 3 primitive form Of the opossum, so
dear to the stomach Of the cOlOred brother.
This creature most certainly had very
first spasm Of true brain, although his
skull is not shaped to hold much OF the
modern necessity.
He was a very low lOWbrOW, but to him
we owe the grabbing Cor our use Of all the
frontal bone his predecessors, the reptiles
and fishes, had million years after the
OpOssum evolved there arose in Wyoming
H.