Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-05-10
THE LIBRARY TABLE
By the Booklorer

DR.. John c. Merriam, president of
the Carnegie Institution of Washing
ton, possesses the story-teller's art as
well as the .erudition OF the scientist.
His new book, THE Living Past" is a
collection of absorbing short stories.
mystery stories. each revealing some re-
cent discovery of scientific significance.
There are seven of them and the titles
have the suggestivenesS which stin1u-
lates a desire to read: "The Meaning
of a Fragment. pools That Reflect
the Past" THE Story of Leaf" "a
Living Link in History" can Abyss in
Time" Footprints on the Path of
History Are the Days of Creation
Ended?" Illustrations are from photo
s-apf1s by the author. DR.. Merriam
says in his introduction that ''the chap
tiers of this book are mainly episodes
selected because of their touch with
especially significant aspects of the
problem of life history" The life his
tory studied is that discovered by the
geologist and it is as complex.and mar
velous as anything which science dis
closes. I'm the geological record, from
which. this history is read" says DR..
Merriam, ''os.s secs time and change in
operation as in no other phase of
knowledge. Inevitably in their con-
ment OF continuity through these events
in history, and regarding the nature
and trend of the movements repre-
sented."
The verif1cation of an Indian legend
often told to the author forms the story
Of The Meaning of Fragment" The
legend was that three Indian maidens,
searching for magic pool, "came to
pit with sloping borders. AS they APP
preached the entrance, one slipped on
the moist rock. The others tried to
save her, but she fell screaming into
the. darkness. They heard her strike
and strike again, and all was STILL"
Between one and two hundred years
after the tragedy narrated in the
legend, DR.. Merriam and fellow scien-
lists came to the cave and explored it,
in search of prehistoric remainS. De-
Scending by a rope ladder, they found,
among skeletons of mountain lions,
deer, porcupines, foxes, bears, and OK
like animals, "a delicate human skele-
ton that lay huddled in dark heap.
The body had not moved from the spot
where the girl crashed against the
solid stone Immediately under the
opening During later explorations,
among the bones on the floor of the
cave, fragment of a human tooth was
found. Instantly this fragment raised
question whether man had been present
at the time the ground-Sloth and other
animals now extinct inhabited this
region. Upon this fragment centered
the critical inquiry of our whole pro-
gram of research" With another pos
sibility in mind, DR.. Merriam climbed
over the rocks to the place where lay
the skeleton of the Indian maiden.
\ H. q i
turned till the teeth were all in view.
A portion of one was missing. The
broken end of the fragment was
brought into contact with the frac-
tured tooth in the skull. The irregular
ends touched and grated as their I'M
evennesses failed to match. A slight
twist and the surfaces seemed to melt
together. No smallest roughness held
them apart. There could be no doubt
that they belonged together.
High up on the wall was the sharp
spine of rock projecting below the
mouth of the pit and, looking up, as
If the drama were being re-enacted, /
seemed to see the falling figure strike
in mid-air on that protruding point, a
fragment of tooth few wide across the
well-the body struck again upon the
floor, and all was still" Could any
Invented story be more dramatic than
this true one?
Pools That Reflect the Past" tells of
a swamp of asphalt, near the site of
Los Angeles, in which various animals
were caught and buried and in turn
served as bait to entrap other animals.
Many of the skeletons found in this
swamp were those of animals mo
The Story of q Leaf" relates the find-
ing of a real leaf of the gingko tree,
not merely an impression, imbedded in
a layer of rock in the Columbia Gorge.
"A Living Link In History takes us to
the redwood forests of Northern Cali
fornia, where, near Calistoga, lin the
solid rock forming commanding hills
there lie remains of many massive trees
differing little, if at all, from redwoods
growing on slopes nearby. They are
now trees of stone, bat in all details of
form and structure, even to microscopic
n1inutiae of the cells composing them,
prints on the Path of History is an
account of strange footprints ION
ancient sand layers which form a part
of the walls of the Grand Canyon"
Here were found tracks of horses,
wolves, large cats, birds and an ele-
plant, as well as those of large, eX-
tinct, slothlike animal. A wonderful
record of the distant past!
X X X X
A hopeful view of the probable emer-
gence of education from, the captivity of
medieval tradition is sustained in "The
Awakening College" by Clarence Cook
Little, former president of the Univer-
sity Of Michigan. Some of the faults
OF the existing system of higher educa-
ton in the United States are the stress
ing of research work by members of
college faculties, with consequent slight
ing OF the teaching function (Which
is what chiefly concerns the STUDENT;
mechanical methods of entrance exam
nation; overstandardized curriculum:
the existence of snobbish fraternities,
permitted by college authorities; artifi-
cially stimulated intercollegiate ath-
letics; the sometimes dictatorial infiu-
ence of alumni, and political influences
in colleges and universities. The signs
of progress are, however, numerous
Some of them are the efforts to develop
an entrance requirement. method which
shall embrace "a measure of the stu
dents emotional maturity and balance:
a measure of his general mental ability
and of his particular aptitudes;;" liberal
izing the curriculum SO that a really
useful and cultural education may be
obtained; curtailing the arbitrary power
Oh LIE OedHj student committees TO con-
troll the enforcement of necessary regu-
lations presumably after faculty COM
mittees have failed), and the making
of college athletics more recreational
and truly amateur.
X X X
Not as spectacular as Henry Ford. yet
as important a figure in American bust
ness and invention, George Eastman
has led life Of practical romance. His
biography, George Eastman" by Carl
W. Alderman, tells of what heredity
probably did for him. His father.
descendant of English colonial ances-
tors, founded Eastman's CommsrciaI
College in Rochester, N. Y, but died