THE MISSING LINK

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 125, 29 May 1930, Page 27

THE MISSING LINK

The missing link is still missing, accoi'dr ing to the anual report of the Smithsonian Institution, issued recently. In fact, the missing link is likely to remain missing for the rest of eternity. iSfc longer is it expected that in some remote part of the world we may find, tucked away in a corner, the progenitors of the hunian race. Central Africa, once the hope of scientists is no longer regarded as offering promise. Dr. Genet S. Miller in the report says: "If a human 'missing link' is to be found, at all, it must be sought among the fossil remains of mammals long ago extinct, since there is no living animal known which possesses the required peculiarities." At the.'present time we possess fossil clues "so,'fragmentary that they are susceptible of/.; being -interpreted cither as such links or'asT something else," according to Dr. Millel-. ..He .adds: "Superficial or prejudiced readers might'regard this, confession as having an important bearing on the subject of orgahifc evolution iv general, and of man's origin in particular, but no conclusion could be. tabrc unjustified. The idea that all existing plants and animals are derived through-, some process of orderly change from kinds now extinct' is supported by aii"array -of-facts too great and too well established to be weakened by doubt cast on alleged family records of any -one creature." : X]p : to- .the-'' present •there have, been :but two skeleton-finds of any importance, according to this authority. "The tilings most needed now arc more fossils, and many of them," he concludes.