Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-20
Series of Jumps From One
Major Form of Life to
Another PostuIated.
NEW CONCEPT JUNKS
SKELETAL EVIDENCE
Assertion Made That Man Appear
ed on Earth Substantially as He
Is in Present Day.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.


evolution, with revolutionary implica-
tions for biology and all the related
sciences, has just been announced by
DR.. Austin H. Clark of the United
States National Museum.
Although it differs radically on vital
points from the current scientific con-
ceptions of evolution, this new state
ment of the origin of life forms is
assured a full hearing because of DR..
Clark's worldwide reputation as a
biologist.
Evolution is postulated as a series
of jumps from one major form of life
to another rather than to process
OF gradual development, due to an nth
degree potentiality for variation which
has been present from the beginning
in life itself.
The evolutionary concept OF life
generally is illustrated graphically by
the figure of tree whose branches are
the different families of plants and
animals-the roots being the prineval
unicellular animals and the highest
branches the anthropoid apes and man.
With DR.. Clarks theory the tree
illustration is impossible and he sub
stitutes for it a multi-faced diamond
figure, each face representing some
distinct group of life forms and all
joined by connecting lines
Supported by Evidence.
The concept Is supported by a mass
of evidence, much of it highly techni-
cal, which DR.. Clark has gathered from
a lifetime Of intensive study of plants
and animals. Much of this study has
been devoted to obscurer forms Of
animal life, such as echinoderms, which
are not well known to the general
biologist. Among these weird forms,
such as star fishes and sea lilies, and
especially among butterflies later, DR..
Clark found evidence which led him to
throw grave doubts on the currently
accepted evolutionary theories, and
clues which led to a strikingly new
conception.
DR.. Clark's theory promises to inject
a new factor into the present modern
ist-fundamentalist controversy, as will
appear from the following quotation:
$50 far as concerns the major groups
of animals, the creationiStS seem to
have the better of the argument. There
is not the slightest evidence that any
one of the major groups arose from any
other. Each is a special animal-com-
plex, related more or less closely to all
the rest, and appearing, therefore, as
special and distinct creation"
This concept iunkS without ceremony
all the painfully gathered Skeletal evi-
dence of the descent of man from an
apelike ancestor and asserts that man
appeared on earth substantially as he
is today-to all intents and purposes
product of special creation.
This point is not brought out in DIR.
Clark's original paper, but was devei-
oped in conversation. Although this
goes a long way toward meeting the
fundamentalist objection to the evolu-
tionary concept, Or. Clark postulateS
an evolutionary mechanism for these
special creations.
In Pearl Magazine.
The theory comes to the world under
the best of scientific auspiceS-in the
Quarterly Review of Biology, of which
DR. Raymond Pearl of Johns Hopkins
University is the editor.
Within animal and plant groups, DR..
Clark's theory allows for the working
of the Darwinian theory of changes
brought about by natural and artificial
selection and remains silent on the
possibility of inheritance of acquired
characters. Thus, he would hold, diff
ferent breeds of cats could be evolved
either by the natural selection of the
cats themselves or the artificial mating
of the cat fancier But he would al
low for no graduation between cats and
dogs.
The new theory also differs striking
ly from the mutation theory which ac-
counts for the origin of new species
and families as the result of accidental
abnormaKties born to normal parents
INTO an environment in which the abb
normal characters prove to be assets in
maintaining life.
DR.. Clark holds that there are no
abnormalities, but that all life is
obeying a constant urge to produce
certain forms, and that when these
forms happen to be born into favor
able environment they survive as new
types of animals or plants. The whole
picture was present in life from the be-
ginning.
Thus, DR.. Clark points out, occasion
ally a calf or kitten is born with long,
powerful hind legs and weak short
forelegs. 1t is looked upon as an abb
normaiity and exhibited at county fairs
as "the kangaroo COW" or the rabbit
cat" But both the COW and cat nave
physical systems balanced to walking
on four legs of approximately equal
strength and when this balance is over
thrown the creature has almost no
chance of survival.
But once some such creature was
born, probably of quadruped parents,
into an environment favorable for hop
ping, and was the first kangaroo. 1t was
not an abnormality or a mutation, be-
cause this tendency TO strong hind limbs
and weak fore limbs is everywhere in
nature, particularly notable among the
obscure forms of animal life, as in
frogs.
Another constant cropping of nature
says Dr. Clark, is toward giganticiSm
Every living creature Is constantly pro-
ducing giants, which cannot live be-
cause of the amount of food they must
obtain. He points out the common st
Johns wort of New England, a flower
a few inches high. 1t always is throw.
ing out giants which cannot survive
long enough to be noticed because they
cannot get food. So nobody ever see:
a tree st. Johns wort. Seeds OF thi:
obscure little flower, taken to New Zea
land. found an environment highly ia
vorable to ,giganticism, for some rea
son or other, and in a very few year
became herbaciOus woody shrubs fiv
or six feet high. This remarkabl
transformation was not accomplishet