EVOLUTION ARGUMENT

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 676, 30 May 1929, Page 7

EVOLUTION ARGUMENT

PROFESSOR REVIEWS NEW EVIDENCE BIOLOGIST’S STANDPOINT Intensity of public interest in the theory of Evolution was shown at the Auckland University College Hall last evening, when a second lecture of a series of three was given by Professor SperrinJohnson. L°xg before S o’clock every seat in the hall was occupied, and many people were compelled to stand for over two hours. So oppressive did the air become that a number were compelled to leave the ball. Professor Sperriu-Joknson based bis lecture principally on the address which lie delivered recently to the Auckland Rotary Club. Special reference was made to three branches of the study—geological distribution, comparative anatomy and comparative embryology. In studying geological distribution it was possible to classify fossilised remains, and from this, science was able to trace the growing complexity in organisms as they were preserved in lower or higher strata, he said. Investigations proved that the more complex organisms in either the plant or the animal kingdom were found in the deposits of more recent age, showing that there had been evolutionary development. Referring to comparative anatomy, he said that marvellous affinities between man’s bodily structure and that of certain vertebrae animals had been reevaled. These gave powerful indications of a common ancestry. The lecturer considered that too much was sometimes made of embryology, but it was, nevertheless, of great scientific value. There seemed to be much truth in the recapitulation theory, which held that the embryo in development recapitulated the evolution of “its own group from a single-cell organism. The lecturer described New Zealand as a country of endless interest to scientists in general and students of evolution in particular. The tuatara lizard, for example, had a degenerate third eye at the top of its head, and research showed that an eye in a much greater state of degeneration was found under covering at the top of the human skull. The lecture was freely illustrated with lantern slides, and at the conclusion of his address the Professor was bombarded with questions from his audience.