ADAM A CHINAMAN

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXV, Issue 3261, 31 January 1931, Page 6

ADAM A CHINAMAN

CRADLE OF HUMAN RACE. When the spades of paleontologists, who were exploring the sands of the great Gobi desert of Mongolia, laid bare the skeleton of a prehistoric man, now scientifically named “Sinanthropus,” there was made a most impressive and significant discovery. As a result, further evidence that Adam and Eve were Chinese and that the mythical Garden of Eden is to be found somewhere in Central Asia has just been advanced to scientists, says the “San Francisco Chronicle.” The revelation of the nature of the brain-case of this prehistoric man, in the opinion of G. Elliot Smith, F.R.S., professor anatomy in the University of London, and author of “The Evolution of Man,” affords ample corroboration of the claim that these new discoveries in China provide a new basis for the study of human evolution.

According to details of the discoveries, explorers of the China survey, led by Dr. Davidson Black, of the Peking Union Medical College, unearthed the jaws, with many teeth still in place, and the remains of the skull as well, of several ancient men who very likely lived 5,000,000 years ago in the pre-Neolithic days. “The evidence provided in these three memoirs,” says Professor Smith in the “Scientific-American,” “makes it possible for us to visualise the circumstances of this epochmaking discovery. These facts are essential for the understanding of the significance of the new light of our remote ancestry.” Dr. Black, in his account of the new discoveries at a recent meeting of the Geological Society of China, pointed out that there was a remarkable geographical relationship between the two finds at the opposite ends of the Eurasiatic Continent, one that of the Peking man and the other that of the Piltdown, or “dawn” man of Great Britain, whose remains were found in the village of Piltdown, Sussex, in 1912. The Piltdown man was found in about fifty degrees north latitude and the Pekin man in forty degrees north latitude. According to Dr. Black, it has been definitely ascertained that the persistent route of migration, first of animals and later of man, since Mid-Tertiary time, has been approximately along latitude fortyfive degrees, and it seems evident that these two extremes represented migrations in opposite directions from a common centre of origin. But where was this centre? Where, in other words, lay the mythical Garden of Eden? Where was the cradle of the human race? Critical consideration of all the known geological, geographical, and biological facts when viewed in the light of these recent discoveries point to Central Asia, and most probably to Mongolia. In advancing the theory that the cradle of human development is to be found somewhere in Central China, Dr. Black presents a number of interesting theories. He points to the fact that Central Asia was roamed at will by animals until the Himalaya Mountains rose' in the MidTertiary age. Then monsoon winds sweeping in from the Indian Ocean and laden with moisture met the barrier of the mountains. Forced to rise and so become condensed, the winds parted with their moistures, heavily watering the southern slope and permitting a luxuriant growth of vegetation, among which the fortunate anthropoids which had remained on the south of this barrier found existence easy and effortless.

But not so those which were left north of this barrier. For, as the winds crossed the mountains, having left their moisture on the southern side, they again descended and by expanding became drying winds. One by one the springs failed, rivers dried and lakes became saline. Deprived of their moisture, the trees of the forests withered and died, and slowly the once heavily-wooded region became a desert. None suffered more from the change than the anthropoids. In the open, according to Dr. Black, the old process of swinging from branch to branch was no longer possible, and an upright gait was forced uuon the creatures with the aid of a branch from dead trees.

That such a branch first grasped for support would also prove an effective weapon against an adversary would quickly be discovered, and when by accident a fragment of stone became lodged in the lower split end of such a stick, the greatei* effectiveness of such a reinforced weapon would not long await disC" cry.

The arid climate increased the discomforts of existence until the creatures were slowly driven to other c ’roes. And thus, as the ages parsed, they migrated to the four corners of the earth. Here then ends study of the development of mankind, for the time being at least, until some fortunate scientist digs up the fossilised remains of the creature that is the missing link in the chain which may lead definitely to the site of the Garden of Eden.