Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-01-02
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
By PAUL !. COLLINS.

become wholly extinct. there have
been found imbedded in Cambria
rocks perfect cockroacheS of mil
lions of years ago which prove L.
be constructed exactly like the cock
reaches of today. Evolution ma
bring mutations in man and monkey
but. DR.. Howard says. the insect goes
on forever. There would seem. az
Cording to the scientist. stronger evil
dence for claiming a special crea-
ton" of the cockroach than OF M n
the lord of creation. And this comes
in the face of Darwin's theory OF
Origin of Species" written in 1888
and his Descent of Man. written
only - years ago.
Henri Frederic Amiel in 1882 wrote:
1T gives liberty and hread 9TH "f
thought to learn To judge our own
epoch from the point of view of uni
versal history. history from the point
Of view of geological periods. geology
from the point of view of astronomy.
when the duration of a mans life
or of peoples life appears TO us a.
that of a fly. and, inversely. the life Of
a Gnat as infinite that of a celestial
body, with all its dust of nations. W.
feel ourselves al once very small and
very great. and we are able, as il
We're. to survey from the height of the
spheres our own existence.
x
Such view of life makes more com
prehenSible the biblical saving AS To-
God. A thousand years in Thy sight
are but as yesterday when it Is past.
With such a time-horizon we may bet
Ter appreciate the duration of human
life upon the world. and wonder at
, the landscapes and daily experiences
I,,f
thropus, the mighty hunter who lived
some half million years ago and
chased the dinosaur and perhaps
SHARED the first tree-climbing fish. the
first reptile and the first bird. Or we
may feel better acquainted with our
ancestral cousins. the Heidelberg and
the Piltdown men.
How little was known of the early
days of the world before the last cen
fury set men to investigating ser
mons in stones. and books in the run
ming brooks Astronomers have long
ontended that the world was seven
or eight billion years old, but whether
they drew their dates from the gas
eouS state or the fluid state is not def
initely recorded. At the recent meet
ing of scientists at Yale College. Prof
Alfred c. Lane announced that by
means of a delicate instrument called
the 'SpinthariScope, il was now pos
Sible to count the explosions" OF
atoms given off from ura MUM into
radium and radium into lead. in the
process of radium disintegratine. BY
counting the atoms exploding in a
second. il could be computed at what
speed the disintegration is taking
place and how long il has thus been
n I'rnno hal
computed that the age of the world is
three times as long as science had
therefore, conceded--it is 1918 200. 600
years. SO in the last quarter of
century we have discovered a billion
years of time.
Our DIR. HrdliCka of The National
Museum. president Of the American
Anthropolosical Society. speaking "
the skull found in South Africa known
as the Rhodesian skull. says that il
shows evidence that il belonged TO a
creature superior to the chimpanzee
and nearer the human" though 1t IS
not Darwins missing link" If it h
that of man, then the Heidelber
and Piltdown youngsters of $500.
wears of age should be seen and not
| heard'-as is suitable to their you-'.
and even the Pithecanthropus ~
I SOC, 900 years. more or less, was a me-
conner. arriving after the Rhodesis i.
'whatis-it' had been dead half nil
| lion years. In the light of such a.
! tiquity, what Of Tut.ankh-A Amer.
| whose funeral. occurred only $50"
| years ago?
OF nearer concern to moderns is IT,
announcement that by the year 1000
A d. the average age of men will be
100 years instead of the present 81
years and men zoo years old will not
be rare. Fifty years ago our average
longevity was only 40 years. and to-
day in India it is only "a years.
i Thus science progresses, and never
before at such speed as today.
fcopyrirht. 1928. by Paul V. Colhns.l