The famous discovery in Java, by Dubois, of the skullcap, femur, and
two teeth in the upper Tertiary rocks has led to many interesting
discussions, among which was a paper read by Ernst Haeckel before the
International Congress of Zoölogists, held in Cambridge, England, last
year. In this paper Haeckel contended that in these remains we had at
last the long-sought-for missing link.[A] This paper excited much
interest, which led to a request for its publication. The intelligent
public, without knowing much about the value of the osteological
points under discussion, were ready to grant that here indeed was the
missing link, since the highest authorities in science were divided in
opinion as to whether the remains belonged to a very low member of the
human race or a very high member of the manlike apes. The conclusion
would naturally follow that it made but little difference whether the
remains proved to be those of man or monkey, as here was a creature so
intermediate in structure that it stood on the dividing line, so to
speak. In this little book Haeckel presents the old evidences as to
the structural similarities between man and the higher apes, and
places the Java remains (_Pithicanthropus erectus_) as the last link
in the chain of descent. He also traces the ancestors of the apes
through the mammalian series down, step by step, to the lowest
vertebrates, and on through the invertebrates to the lowest forms of
life. The suggestions are in many cases hypothetical yet instructive,
as showing the possible lines of descent.
The unaccountable attitude of the distinguished Virchow in the
presence of these remains is in harmony with his uncompromising and,
one might say, unreasoning attitude in regard to the derivative
theory. Haeckel shows this up very clearly in the following, which we
quote: "Virchow went to the Leyden Congress with the set purpose of
disproving that the bones found by Dubois belonged to a creature which
linked together apes and man. First, he maintained that the skull was
that of an ape, while the thigh belonged to man. This insinuation was
at once refuted by the expert paleontologists, who declared that
without the slightest doubt the bones belonged to one and the same
individual. Next, Virchow explained that certain exostoses or growths
observable on the thigh proved its human nature, since only under
careful treatment the patient could have healed the original injury.
Thereupon Professor Marsh, the celebrated paleontologist, exhibited a
number of thigh bones of wild monkeys which showed similar exostoses,
and had healed without hospital treatment. As a last argument the
Berlin pathologist declared that the deep constriction behind the
upper margin of the orbits proved that the skull was that of an ape,
as such never occurred in man. It so happened that a few weeks later
Professor Nehring, of Berlin, demonstrated exactly the same formation
on a human prehistoric skull received by him from Santos, in Brazil."
* * * * *
Mr. _Russell_ expresses a hope that the review of some of the
characteristics of rivers given in one of the chapters of his _Rivers
of North America_[B] may stimulate a desire in American students "to
know more of the many and varied charms of their native land." The
study of rivers is an alluring one, whether pursued upon the little
local stream of one's neighborhood or upon the grand rivers that form
systems and determine geographical districts; whether made with the
assistance of a fishing-rod or of a steamboat. It can not fail to be
promoted by Mr. Russell's instructive book, which the local student or
the excursionist may consult with profit, while the geographer and
geologist will find it a convenient manual. A river, when we come to
think of it, means a great deal. Economically, it is the most valuable
topographical feature a country can possess; geologically and
geographically, it is a result of prominent features of the earth's
structure, and is the cause of modifications in its surface which in
time may revolutionize the topographical conditions and produce
climatic and physical changes. All these characteristics of rivers are
systematically and comprehensively set forth in Mr. Russell's book,
where the life-history of the stream is presented, from its beginning
in a little mountain torrent or hillside rill, through its course as
it descends to the plain, wearing and tearing and deepening its
channel. In the plain its character and action are modified under the
new conditions in which it finds itself, and gradually, as it
approaches its mouth, it deposits, whereas it had torn away at its
beginning, and shows contrasts quite as marked as those between youth
and old age. Rivers have their growth in time, too, and a stream that
has been carrying on its work for long ages presents different
characteristics throughout its course from one that comes fresh to its
task, and these differences are pointed out. We are told, too, how
rivers grow, drawing new affluents to themselves and extending their
sources backward, and how when the sources of streams on different
sides of a watershed approach on the summit, there is a struggle for
the mastery. These are only a few of the new suggestions which the
book offers us. Coming to the more matter-of-fact details, the laws
governing streams and their course; the influence of inequalities and
the hardness of rocks, especially on riverside scenery; and the office
of rivers as carriers of material in suspension and in solution, are
considered; then their deposits, under various heads and aspects, and
the effects of changes in the elevation of the land, of variations in
the load of material and of changes of climate upon them; the origin
and characteristics of stream terraces and stream development, the
topics concerning which are too many and varied to bear more than a
passing reference. The more salient characteristics of American rivers
are discussed as to the nine drainage slopes--the Atlantic, St.
Lawrence, Hudson Bay, Arctic, Bering, Pacific, Great Basin, Gulf, and
Caribbean--each slope presenting its own general characteristics, with
varieties in detail almost as numerous as the rivers. The whole is
briefly summarized in the last chapter, The Life History of a River.
We have given merely the tamest inventory of only a part of the topics
of Mr. Russell's book. As the subject is treated by the author with
careful attention to specific features, as the magnitude of our river
systems is indicated, and as rivers with different or contrasting
characteristics--the St. Lawrence and the Colorado, for example--are
compared with one another, the subject takes on an aspect that is
really grand.