EVOLUTION.

Hokitika Guardian, 22 May 1926, Page 1

EVOLUTION.

(By Science Service.) American anthropologists have gone on record as to their attitude with regard to the evolution of mail. A resolution which states in effect that man is part of the animal world, and is subject tiV the great natural principle of evolution, lias just been adopted by the. Council of the American Anthropological Association, the central association of the anthropologists, ardliologists and ethnologists in this country. The resolution was framed in order to express simply but firmly the sentiment. of the association on this important subject, according to Dr Ales llrdlieka. president of the organisation. “ The association wishes to show that so far as the anthropologists are concerned. evolution human as well as. animal, is no more a question of any theories, but a natural well demonstrated, and grand—perhaps the grandest —principle and function of nature, saiil Dr Hrdlicka to-day... The text of the resolution reads as follows: “ In view of the dogmatic objections raised against the theory of evolution the council of the American Anthropological Association have thought it advisable to formulate the present position of scientific inquiry. “ The plants and animals belonging to early periods of the earth’s history show that the forms have not remained the same for any length of time. The changes that have occurred are of such character that we are compelled to consider the later forms as descendents of older form. No form of living being has remained the.same through the ages. The. evidence of qpist times is corroborated by the structural and developmental analogies observed in related forms, proofs of a. gradual differentiation from common ancestral forms. “ The minute structure of all living

matter is alike and shows that all organisms, from the lowest to the highest. must lie considered as a unit. “ Man lias succeeded in producing a variety of forms of domestic animals and cultivated plants, which differ from their ancestors. Our success, accomplished in a very short period, indicates that in long periods nature will produce more fundamental changes-- “ Alan is part of the animal world. Tn all respects bis anatomical structure conforms to that of the rest of tlic animal world. ITis prenatal life closely parallels that of the higher mammals. The same influence that control their development after birth, control him. and lie responds in a like manner to the environment in which lie is placed. Prehistoric archeology has shown that, in the course of the ages, man has undergone great changes in physical type, and that ancient man differed from modern races, the more so the more ancient the remains. “Local types of man have developed on every continent, and their existence proves that changes in the heritable characteristics of racial groups are effected in the course of time. “ VTe must conclude that the bodily form of man as well as that of animals and plants, has changed, and is still changing, not in the course of centuries. but in long periods. “ Tlio exact cause of changes in the form, of organisms, and the conditions under which they occur, as well as the causes making for stability, are-still imperfectly known. The principle ol change lias been so well established that it should become the common property of mankind.”