NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19495, 26 November 1926, Page 10

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

MAN AND THE APES. 'Probably few people who habitually use the word evolution as part of their working vocabulary could define the term in a way that would satisfy a scientist, and there are probably nearly as few who have read Darwin's 'Origin of Species.' That epoch-making book was published sixty-seven years ago, and directly or indirectly ifc has profoundly affected every department of research and thought; yet it may be questioned whether its ideas have really percolated into the popular mind," says the Expository Times. "The idea of evolution entertained by most unscientific persons is summarily expressed in the phrase that 'man has sprang from the monkey'—to which a cynical wit once added, 'And some men have not sprung very far.' Now, against this shallow and misleading view of evolution, Professor J. Arthur Thomson lifts up bis voice in protest in the Essex Hall lecture which he delivered this year on 'Man in the Light of Evolution.' When we envisage the sifting-out process by which mari has come to be what he is, this view is not only shallow and misleading; it is, he says, a view of 'unutterable vulgarity.' The relationship of man to the anthropoid apes is a real one, but it is not a relationship of descent. Professor Thomson is concerned to rebut this vulgar error, and twice, in varying language, he makes it clear, to those who entertain this common but erroneous idea, that 'no living ape. is ever thought of as man's ancestor.' The truth is that the highest apes are only man's 'collaterals on another branch of the genealogical tree.' " ' A LESSON FROM GERMANY. "There is no doubt that the German firm wall make a success of its work," says the Dublin correspondent of the Times, describing the progress of the Shannon power scheme, on which he says the contractors are making speedy headway. "Tb® temporary power station at Ardnacrusha is a model of engineering efficiency," he states. "It has been built in the German style and nothing so ambitious has been seen in this country before. Its general appearance of power and 'Ordnung' has made a great impression on the people who have visited it. Limerick has been transformed by the new works. Some years ago this once great city was described as a place to which the only visitors were 'the punctual tides,' but the advent of the firm of Siemens-Schukert has made a remarkable change. Limerick, which two years ago was almost in decay, has become the busiest city in Ireland. Several hundred Germans of all classes have settled either in the city or in its immediate neighbourhood. They have brought with them new ideas of work and citizenship, which have set an example to the inhabitants. In former days nobody in Limerick would have dreamed of starting work at 7 o'clock in the morning; now they think nothing of it. It would be idle to pretend that the Germans are popular, in fact, there is virtually no fraternisation; but the importation of modern methods of industry into a city which for generations has been living in the atmosphere of the violated treaty has produced astonishing results. Even those persons, of whom there are many, who still are sceptical concerning the economic value of the Shannon scheme admit that the psychological effects of the Germans' methods are proving excellent. . . . For years, Ireland has been accustomed to destruction, great buildings have been wrecked, old mansions have been burned to the ground, and a whole generation has been reared in an atmosphere of general decay. In Limerick, now, the Irish people can see construction on a really big scale. The Shannon scheme is calculated to give them a totally new point of view and certainly, up to the present, its authors have good reason to congratulate themselves. -