The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-09-04
Ernst HaeCkGI
on last Words
on Evolution"
CHAPTER II.
THE STRUGGLE OVER OUR GEN.
EALoGICAL TREE.
(Continnhd from nravfnns issnA.l
CHAPTER II.

| NOOhNAhhCu AAOht PAONAOA0 A00AOeS
These archaeological facts are
among the most important proofs OF
the descent OF man from a long Sc
ries of higher and lower vertebrates.
! There is no other explanation posai-
BILE except evolution for the chrome
logical succession of these classes,
which is in perfect harmony with the
morphological and systematic distri-
button. The anti-evolutionists have
not even attempted to give any other
explanation. The fishes dipneusts, am
phibians, reptiles, monotremes, mar
supials, placentals, lemurs, apes, an
thropoid apes, and ape-men (pithecan-
thropD, are inseparable links of long
ancestral chain of which the last and
most perfect link is man. CT the "a
bles pp. 166-16S)
One of the archaeological facts l
have quoted, namely, the late appear
ance of the mammal class in geology
lis particularly important. This most
advanced group of the vertebrates
comes on the stage Of the Triassic
period, in the second and shorter half
of the organic history of the earth
1t is represented only by low and
.small forms In the whole of the meso-
zoic age, during the domination Of
the reptiles. Turnout this long Pc
Rod, which is estimated by some ge-
ologists at S-11, by others at 90 or
more, million years, the dominant rep
tile class developed its many remark
able and curious forms; there were
swimming marine reptiles (halisau-
rial, flying reptiles (pterosauria), and
colossal land reptiles (dinosauria). 1t
was much later, in the Tertiary Pc
Rod, that the mammal class attained
the wealth OF large and advanced pla-
Genital forms that secured its predomi-
nance over this more recent period.
The many and thoro Investigations
made during the last few decades into
the ancestral history of the mammals
have convinced biologists who were
engaged in them that they may be
traced to a common root. All the
mammals, from the lowest mono
remes and marsupials to the ape and
man, have a large number of striking
characteristics in common, and these
distinguish them from all other YER
tebrates: the hair and glands OF the
skin, the feeding Of the young with
the mothers milk, the peculiar for
nation of the lower jaw and the ear
bones connected Herewith, and other
features in the structure Of the skull
also, the possession Of a knee-cap
(patella), and the loss of the nucleus
in the red blood-cells. Further, the
complete diaphragm, which entirely
separates the pectoral cavity from the
abdominal, is only found in the man
mails; in all the other vertebrates
there is still an open communication
between the two cavities. The mono
phyletic Tor single) origin OF the
whole mammalian class is therefore
now regarded by all competent ex-
perts as an established fact.
In the face of this important fact,
what is called the "ape-question" loses
a good deal of the importance that
was formerly ascribed to 1t. All the
momentous consequences that follow
it in regard to our human nature,
our past and future, and our bodily
and psychic life, remain undisturbed
whether we derive man directly from
one of the primates, an ape or lemur,
or from some other branch, some un-
known lower form, of the mammalian
stem. 1t Is important to point this
out, because certain dangerous at
Jesuitical biologists and geological
Jesuits to cause fresh confusion on
the matter.
In a richly illustrated and widely
sead work that Hans Kraemer pub
lished year ago, under the title The
Universe and Man." an able and
learned anthropologist, Professor
Klaatsch of Heidelberg, deals with
the origin and development of the
human race" and admirably describes
the primitive history Of man and his
civilization. However, he denounces
the idea Of mans descent from the
ape as Irrational, narrow-minded, spd
false;" he grounds this severe CEN
sure on the fact that none of the Nv
ing apes can be the ancestor of human
ity. But no competent scientist had
ever said anything so foolish. II we
look closer into this fight with wind
mills, we find that Klaatsch holds sub
stantially the same view of the pithe
cold theory as ] have done since 1866.
He. says expressly: THE three an
thropoid apes, the gorilla, chimpanzee,
and orang seem to diverge from a
common root, which was near to that
OF the glbbon and man." had long
ago given the name archiprimas 70
this single hypothetical root-form OF
the primates which he calls the
"primatoid." It lived In the earliest
part OF the Tertiary period, and had
probably been developed in the Gre
taceous from older mammals. The
very forced and unnatural hypothesis
by means of which Klaatsch goes on
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