Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-11-19

them the last secrets which they can
have held. Two facts stand out from
the maze of opinion-these fossils have
furnished an unparalleled stimulus to
investigation and that the things most
needed now are more fossils and many
Of them. While awaiting further dis
coveries we should not hesitate to con-
feSS that in place Of demonstrable
links between man and other mammals
we have nothing more than some fos-
SilS so fragmentary that they are Sus-
ceptible of being interpreted either as
such links or as something else. Super
fetal or prejudiced readers might re-
gard this confession as having an i'm
portant bearing on the subject OF or
ganic evolution in general and OF man s
origin in particular. But no conclusion
would be more un1ustified."
Should BE Found Together.
In the search for a missing link,
than one part of an animal shall be
found together and that they must un-
questionably belong to the same crea-
ture.
"One part of an animal" he con-
tinues, mot infrequently resembles the
corresponding part of another to which
1t is not nearly related. This is so
common throughout nature that every
one who is occupied with the clasSifi-
cation of animals must constantly be
ready to take 1T into account. The
similaritieS in general form between q
snake and an eel are well known ex-
amples. In their fundamental struc-
tuSes the animals are profoundly diff
ferent, but in their external form they
are remarkably alike.
THE crowns of the molar teeth in
one Of the extinct North American
peccarieS deceptively resemble the
crowns of human molars. The shape
Of the skull and teeth IN a marsupial
from Australia and lemur from NADIA
gascar is rodentlike, while In the rest Of
the body both animals are very different
from rodents.
"a single tooth, bone or fragment of
fossil bone, which resembles the cor
responding part Of q human skeleton
does not necessarily pertain to a crea-
ture nearly related to man, and even If
such single fragment were exactly
intermediate in structure between the
corresponding part of man and some
particular kind of great ape it would
not furnish evidence of the existence
OF an animal whose total structure was
similarly intermediate.
Illustration Is Given,
"The specimen illustrates a stage of
structural intermediateness, but this
stage might have been arrived at as
readily without direct blood relationship
as with 1t. A good example Is furnished
by the molar teeth of man, chimpanzee
and gorilla. In their structure the
molarS OF chimpanzees are intermediate
between those Of the gorilla and man,
but every one knows that the Chin
panzee is not a link, either missing or
living. Yet the characters Of the teeth
are such that If the chimpanzee were
extinct and some of its molars were the
only known fragments of any fossil ape,
the unearthing of these teeth might
easily be hailed as the discovery OF a
missing link.
1T should be clear, I think, in order
to bring the genuine scientific world
into fairly unanimous agreement. 1t
would be necessary to lay before 1t two
or more parts of missing link, and
that these parts should not onlv give
| trustworthy information about the
structures most characteristic Of man,
but that they should also have been
! found under circumstances showing that
they pertained to one Individual"