The Washington times., 1922-04-14
CALLS monkey
ORIGIN THEORY
smoke SCREEN
Johns Hopkins Professor At
tacks Beliefs of Anti
Evolutionists.

BALTIMORE, April 14.--Charac-
terixing the statement that man 10
from monkeys ss merely
poiemical obscurantism" as as "a
sort of Bryanesque smoke screen"
DR.. Edward w. Berry, professor Of
in Johns Hopkins Uni
versity. In a lecture at Homewood,
launched an attack on anti-evolu-
donists.
DIR. Berry spoke on "The Geolosic
Record Of Evolution" delivering tho
first OF q series Of three public lec-
lures given by the university this
month on Evolution in the Light OF
Present knowledge"
rOne OF the outstanding differ
the only one--isc-
tween man and other animals DIR.
Berry said, rs his ability TO profit by
the experience and accumulated wis
dom Of the race, aud yet, despite
vaccinationists, antfevolutionists and
believers In a flat earth.
Evolution Indisputable.
Evolution is not q theory of
origins. nor an article of scientific
faith. but an indisputabls fact.
We could not teach geology with
out teaching evolution. One of ths
difficulties 10 the layman is the
confusion of eyolution-the record
Of the past and present history of
organisms-with the various the
ories that have been proposed to
explain it's factors or mode of
operation.
Evolution was regarded as
dungeons heresy, inimicaI to Christi.
anity, contrary to Genesis--which
was regarded as a scientific account
of the origin Of the earth apd it's
inhabitants
do these people claim that tho
hundreds OF varieties of horses,
dogs. chickens and pigeons go back
to the Garden of Eden. or were
in Noah's ark, or that all the hor-
ticultural varieties Of flowers.
shrubs and vegetables were I'm
Mother Ewes kitchen garden? Not
at ALI They are more or less Ia.
miliar with the cattle breeders or
the Burbank method of articficial
selection. Their objection to evo.
luton rests on the assumption that
man is OF different stuff from tina
brute word-as IL they had no ex-
perience with congregations or leg
islatiye assemblies. 1t In the i'm
piled collateral relationship with
monkeys. together with the tradi.
tion engendered by medieval art
that the devil has a tail, that Of
fends their dignity
THE statement that the human
species is descended from monkeys l.
the playing on prejudices that started
with Bishop Soapy
Sam as he was called by some OF
man is not at oil related closely to
the existing monkeys or apes. They
are the elimination of different lines
OF evolution. That the monkeys
ancestry I'm the far distant past APP
proximated the human line, or, In.
deed, may have merged with IL mil.
lions of years ago in early Ter
tiary times, Is quite another matter.
II find nothing In Genesis either
for or against evolution.
Points To Rudimertary Tail.
1T Is a most curious revelation in
the workings of the human mind
that so many good people grow in
dignant over the idea that man was
made from a long line of animal an.
cestry, as degrading. and yet who
do not quarrel with the facts that
each human starts his or her IN.
dividual life as a single cell. and dur
ing the nine months preceding birth
passes through series of stages
that epitomize roughly the main
stages of evolution, even to possess
ing a rudimentary tail like an ape?
"Five hundred years ago we would
have said that embryology was the
a.. a. So he.
faith OF the elect-exactly a reason
that once was advanced TO explain
the fossils I'm the rocks. Today most
OF us know better, and we find in
the truth of creation far more TO
reverence than In the anthropomor-
phic deity ~ the childhood of the
races"
Extends Over Vast Period.
Although" DIR. Berry concluded,
very much remains to be diseov-
cred, we know enough to assure the
layman that man has had q long
evolutionary history extending over
tens. IL not hundreds, of thousands
of years. Does this knowledgs
breed cynicism and irresponsibiIityf
What answer does science give on
this point2
Since late Paleolithio times-that
is, toward the close of the Stone
Age, $4,000 wears ago, mans evolu-
ton biologfcally has been slight
and, TO some extent, retrograde.
Skull bones and teeth have changed
but little. and IL was during this
period of slight physical change
that our race has made the most
astonishing progress, and the hops
is natural that there is no limit TO
the betterment of the race by ths
exercise of wisdom, altruism and
idealisn-the spiritual graces,' II