The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1923-04-12
Man

LONDON, March 20.-Much speeu-
lation as to the age of man has arisen
as a result of the recent discoveries of
fossil human skulls in South America,
Patagonia and the island of Jersey.
The estimates as to the antiquity of
the human race range all the way from
ten thousand to a million years. DR..
VOLTS reported discovery in Patagonia
of fossilied human skull of the ter
tiary period, however, may nullify all
previous scientific calculations on this
subject, and the public is now getting
a little ehary about accepting even
scientists estimates regarding the date
of the origin of the human race.
Ever since the unearthing Of the
ashes Of King Tutankhamun, who, in
the view of anthropologists, is to be
reckoned only as an 'infant,' as the
age of man goes, startling discoveries
have been made all over the world
which upset all Well-established an
chronological foundations.
DIR. A. Smith Woodward, director
of the geological department of the
British Museum, makes some interest
ing commentaries on the latest discove>
cries in skulls and bones. "For mo-
ment" says he, "the public seemed to
assume that we had found at least the
first man who lived on earth. / fear,
however, that these conjectures are as
baseless as they are interesting. Since
the skull from Jersey is said to have
been found near a neolithic burial
chamber, it is probably much nearer
our period than any Of the skulls Of
fossil men which show resemblance TO
their ape-like ancestors. And since
the specimen from Patagonia comes
from country which has furnished
more mares nests in the study of
prehistoric and ancestral man than
any other part of the world, it will not
excite interest among anthropologists
until some geologist admittedly skilled
in such matters has satisfied himself
that this true fossil, definitely as
ISOLATED with the remains of extinct
animals"
Who, then, DR.. Woodward asks, was
the first man on earth? "To be
strictly accurate" he replies, 1--WE have
not yet found him, although we have
some reason to think we know where
to look. In the dim borderland of time
which separates man from monkey
There roamed, somewhere in Central
Asia, form of large-brained ape des-
tined to be the precursor of man. 1t is
impossible to fix a date for his APP
pearance, but we do know that when
he came into being the Himalayan
Mountains had mot yet reared their
peaks"
The eminent British geologist says
nothing, has yet been discovered re-
specting the habits and life of these
apes. A party of American naturalists
is now searching for them in prollis-
ing localities in Mongolia. he adds.
1t was in the Neanderthal, near Dus-
seldorf, Germany, writes DR.. Wood
ward, that the remains of the earliest
man Of whom anything is really known
were discovered. Compared with our
knowledge of his ancestors" he says,
she is an intimate acquaintance. But
it is impossible to assign him date
in years. Swedish biologists reckon
his age as about 10000 years"
"NeanderthaI man,F continues the
British scientist, twas dehnately man.
He lived in caves from which he sal
lied forth to hunt the animals, such
as mammoth, rhinoceros, reindeer and
bison, which then roamed over Europe.
We have found his tools, flint and
bone, and we have found even the
bone pins with which possibly the
early women fastened the. rough skins
which served them fof pettieoats. We
have also found remains of paint and
rouge, which seem to signify the dawn
of vanity.
"Most remarkable of all, we have
ascertained that these early human
beings believed in a future life, an
enormous advance in thought. They
buried their dead. and with the dead
we have found both stone implements
and the bones Of animals. which ha
been buried when still covered witt