THE SEARCH FOR THE MISSING LINK.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 4900, 16 October 1901, Page 4

THE SEARCH FOR THE MISSING LINK.

In the course of a readable sketch of Professor Ernest Haeckel, in tbe August < M'Clure's,' Mr Kay Stannard Baker tells something of tbe scientist's mission in the island of Java. Professor Haeckel went to Java in September of last year to investigate further along the lines of discoveries of Dr Dubois, a Dutch army surgeon.

Dr Dubois • found some fossilised bones, which, upon careful examina. tion, proved to be tbe remains of a hitherto unknown animal, partaking of some of the characteristics of tbe ape, and some of man. Dr Dubois gave this animal tbe name Pithecanthropus erectus (ape man), and upon its exhibition at tbe Zoological congress at Leyden. in 1895, -a number •of the world's greatest zoologisls and palosoutologiata at once declared that it was of a certainty one of the ' missing links , connecting man with bis ape-like ancestors. Judged by the i length of the femur, or thigh-bone — that of the left lpg — the creature must have been nearly equal in B'za to a modern man. But the shape oi , the skull indicates fchab lie was oa)y a hitle more intelligent than the apes, tbe size of his brain being only about two thirds that of a civilised man. aU though equal to that of a modern Veddah woman of Ceylon, the human bt-ing lowest in the scale of intelligence. This ancestor of ours was probably well covered with hair, was tailless, like the present-day baboons and men, and had the power of walk' ing upright. His arms were doubtless long, so that he might climb and swiu« about among the trees of bis native jungle. Curiously enough, also, certain growths on thn thighbone of this ages-dead creature indicate that during life be was lame, suffering from a malady to cure whicb in man requires the moat careful hospital treatment. And yet there are evidences that the creature recovered though possibly remaining lame, and it may have been that it was on account of this serious handicap in life that his skeleton reached the place where it was preserved through all the centuries, while bis fellow.&pemen wholly disappeared. In tbe jungles of south-eastern Asia and tbe islands near by, which have long been known to science as the cradle of the human race, and which are still inhabited by tbe very lowest orders of human beings, the pithecanthropus lived with the elephant, tapir, rhinoceros, lion, hippopotamus, gigan- ' tic pangolin, hyena,,, and other ani-

mate, reawca of which were found round about him. It baa been com* puted tbat this ancestor lived somewhere about the beginning of our last glacial epoch, some 270,000 years ago. Iv other words, about 17,000 generations have been born and have died between him and ourselves. It will aeeiat our understanding of what this relationship really means, to know that merely 250 generations carry us back beyond tbe dawn of history, 5,000 years ago. To the discovery of these few bones the scientific world attached the utmost importance, as gm D g indisput. able viijual evidence of oue of the ptepß by which the ape form of creature has developed through tbe prot'eeses of evolution to tbe man-form. Tet the discovery, though immensely significant, was meagre enough. Here were two bits of bone, a scult»«ap, and a femur and two teeth, very dark of color, and thoroughly petrified— all too little to satisfy the knowledgeseeking appetite of tbe zoologist. Consequently, Dr Dubois pursued his investigations in Java, spending much money in making farther excavations, but to no purpose so far as the discovery of other remains of the ape-man was concerned. And,finally, Professor Haeckel himself determined lo go to Java, hoping, yet hardly expecting, to find some further evidences of the ' missing link.'