Evolution and creation

by Herbert Junius Hardwicke

Now, if we take the pedigree of man, as arranged by Darwin and Haeckel, and compare it with this geological tree, we shall see how perfectly the sister sciences of Paleontology and Biology corroborate each other. The first form of life, says Haeckel, was the Moneron, a structureless albuminous atom of bioplasm, not even possessing the structure of a mere cell. We place this, which belongs to the primitive order Protozoa, in the Laurentian period, where we are told by geologists that fossil foraminifera have been found. This promordial organism gradually developed into single nucleated cells, called Amœbæ, and these again into masses of nucleated cells, called Synamœbæ. These simple and multiple cell organisms we place in the next period, Huronian, in the strata of which geologists tell us have been found fossil remains of lowly organised molluscs, or soft-bodied animals. Ciliata are the next forms of life, which consist of Synamœbæ, covered with vibratile cilia. These gradually developed a mouth, becoming Gastrœada, and afterwards Turbellaria, a low form of worm (Vermes), with a mouth and alimentary canal; and are placed in the Cambrian period, in which stratum have been found remains of this kind of life. The ascent continues through the transition stage of Scolecida to Himatega, or sack-worms, with their rudimentary spinal cords; from which gradually evolved Acrania, or the first vertebrate animals, without skulls, brains, central heart, jaws, or limbs; but with a true vertebral cord. This peculiar little animal was a lancet-shaped marine worm, akin to the lancelet or amphioxus of to-day. From these developed Monorrhini, or vertebrate hybrid worms and fishes, with skull, brain, and central heart, but no sympathetic system, jaws, or limbs, and with a single nasal cavity (lampreys). These three forms are placed in the Silurian period, in which stratum have been found fossilised bony plates and scales of fishes and Annelides, or sea-worms.

The next forms of life to be developed, from the Monorrhini, were the Selachii (Amphirrhini), or true fishes, of the shark family, with two nasal cavities, swim-bladder, two pairs of fins, and jaws. From these evolved the Ganoidei, and thence all osseous fishes; and Dipnoi (mud fish), or hybrid fishes and amphibians, with both gills and lungs. These little animals live during winter in water, when they breathe air dissolved in water through their gills; and during the summer in mud, when they breathe with their lungs. Both these are placed in the Devonian period, in which have been found fossil sharks, etc. The next forms are Sozobranchii, or amphibians with persistent gills, from which evolved Urodela, or amphibians with transitory gills, but persistent tails, and legs; allied to the salamander. These are placed in the Carboniferous period, in which have been found fossilised amphibians. We next get Protamnia, or hybrid salamanders and lizards (frogs and toads), with no gills or tails, but possessing an amnion and cloaca. These represent the parent forms of the three great higher branches of vertebrates—Reptilia, Aves (which evolved from reptiles), and Mammalia, and are placed in the Permian period, in which have been found fossilised amphibians and true reptiles. Monotremata (Promammalia) are the next forms developed in our pedigree, the parent forms of the class Mammalia; with cloaca, amnion, and marsupial bones; which are placed in the Triassic period; and from which evolved Marsupialia, mammals with amnion and marsupial bones, but no cloaca; allied to the kangaroo and opossum of to-day. This species we place in the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. From Marsupialia developed the large kingdom of Placentalia, which lose the marsupial bones and cloaca, and acquire a placenta, and which we divide into three main branches, according to the particular placental formation. The first division we call Villiplacentalia (tufty placenta), from which evolved Edentata (sloth, ant-eaters, and tertiary monsters), Cetacea (marine placental mammals, such as whale, dolphin, porpoise, and sea-cow), and Ungulata (horse, cow, pig, rhinoceros, and hippopotamus). The second division we term Zenoplacentalia (ring-like placenta), the earliest forms of which were Carnaria, or flesh-eaters, from which came Carnivora, or land beasts of prey (cats, dogs, bears, etc.), and Pinnipedia, or marine beasts of prey (seal and walrus). The third division we name Discoplacentalia (discoid placenta); and here we find, as the first development, the Prosimiæ, or tailed lemurs, quadrupeds with claws, and having the appearance of hybrid cats and monkeys. All these are placed in the Eocene period, in which stratum geologists have found fossilised placentals.

From the discoplacental-mammal Prosimiæ evolved the following species—viz., Prosimiæ of Madagascar (lemurs of to-day), with four feet and claws; Cheiroptera (bats); Rodentia (squirrels, mice, porcupines, hares); Insectivora (moles, shrew-mice, and hedgehogs); and Simiæ, or quadruped monkeys, with two feet, two hands, nails, and tails. We divide Simiæ into two classes, the Platyrrhini, or New World apes, with thirty-six teeth, tails, no cheek-pouches or callosities, and nasal cavities pointing outwards and divided by a thick septum (from which came the American howlers, weepers, capuchins, and squirrel-monkeys); and the Catarrhini (Menocerca), or Old World apes, with thirty-two teeth (like man), tails, cheek-pouches, callosities, and nasal cavities pointing downwards and divided by a thin septum (like man). These are placed in the Meiocene period, in which have been discovered the first fossil apes. From the Catarrhini developed the tailed baboons and macaques, with thirty-two teeth, cheek-pouches, and callosities; and the Anthropoidæ, with thirty-two teeth, but no tails, cheek-pouches, or callosities. These were evolved during the Pleiocene period. From the anthropoid (man-like) apes we get three distinct divisions—viz., the gibbon and orang families, with no tails or cheek-pouches, walking partly on hind legs, and wandering in companies in India; the chimpanzee and gorilla families of Africa, with no tails or cheek-pouches, no articulate speech, walking on hind legs only, living in companies in caves, and carrying their babes in their arms; and Alali, or ape-like men, commonly called the “missing links,” who were probably developed, during the Pleiocene period, in Lemuria, a submerged continent which formerly occupied the position of the Indian Ocean; or in the districts of the Nile and Ganges.

These primitive ape-like men were the connecting links between men and the apes, and are divided into two main branches—viz., woolly-haired Alali, who migrated from Lemuria, west and south; and straight-haired Alali, who migrated from Lemuria, north, east, and south. Both these branches had skulls of the same character as those of the chimpanzee and gorilla—that is, they were dolichocephalic (long-headed) prognathous (prominent jaws), and also, like their ape brethren, were troglodytes, or cave-dwellers. From the woolly-haired Alali evolved the Papuans of New Guinea and Tasmania, and the Hottentots of Africa, whose descendants of to-day are but little removed in brain development from the higher apes. They are dolichocephalic prognathous savages, with black, hairy skins, long arms, and short, thin legs, with ill-developed calves; are semi-erect, walk on hind legs, and have no true articulate speech. A higher development of the woolly-haired Alali is the Negro, and higher still the Caffre, both of whom are dolichocephalic prognathous savages, with black, semi-hairy skins, and imperfect articulation. From the straight-haired Alali are derived the Australian natives and the large family of Malays or Polynesians. The Australians migrated south, and were dolichocephalic prognathous savages, with smooth, dirty brown skins, and straight black hair. The lowest tribes of the present day have no true articulate speech. The Polynesians migrated north and east, and were dolichocephalic prognathous troglodytes (as the gorilla and chimpanzee), with clear, smooth brown skins, and true articulate speech. This branch split up into two large families, the Mongolian or Turanian, and the Caucasian or Iranian. The former covered Northern and Eastern Asia, Polynesia, and America, and were originally brachycephalic (broad-headed) prognathous men. They subdivided into two distinct species, the Mongols of China, Japan, Lapland, Finland, and Hungary, who are brachycephalic, but not prognathous, with smooth, brownish yellow skin, and straight black hair; and the Mongols of America, who are mesocephalic (round-headed), but not prognathous, with smooth red skins and straight black hair. The Caucasian family covered Western Asia and most of Europe, being mesocephalic prognathous troglodytes (afterwards agriculturalists) with smooth dark skins and long straight hair; and subdivided into two branches, the Semitic, of Arabia and Syria, and the Aryan or Indo-European; both of whom are mesocephalic, but not prognathous.

It is true that, so far, no fossil remains of Alali have been found, with the exception of the Neanderthal skull; but it is equally true that they may soon be discovered. It is only comparatively recently that the other species have been found fossilised; and it must be recollected that only a very small portion of the earth’s crust has yet been explored, and that not the most likely for finding. No attempts have been yet made to unearth the life-remains in the neighbourhood of the Indian Ocean, where it is believed man first evolved from his ape-like ancestors. It does not, however, seem to me to be essentially necessary that the “missing link” be found in order to substantiate the Evolution theory. There is so little difference between the higher anthropoid apes and man, compared with the enormous differences observed between the earlier forms of life and the ape species, that the sequence and continuity appear now conclusively settled to any reasonable observer. Comparative anatomists and embryologists both declare in favour of the theory of development of Darwin and Haeckel. It is a fact beyond dispute that every human being commences his individual existence as a tiny piece of structureless bioplasm, from which condition he passes through the Amœba stage to the Synamœba, and thence in regular order through each successive stage of development marked in the genealogy given above, becoming worm, fish, and mammal in turn, and finally being born into the world as a member of the human family. Each of these lower forms also passes through all the species preceding it in precisely the same manner. This is one of the strongest arguments in favour of Evolution. It is said that the power of speech possessed by man opposes a strong barrier to the theory; but it has been shown clearly that other animals besides man can use articulate sounds, which convey meanings to each other. Monkeys certainly understand each other’s chattering, and it is highly probable that birds also understand each other’s cries. It is true that the sounds made by animals are chiefly monosyllabic; but philologists now tell us that the languages spoken by primitive races of men are compounded of quite simple elements, perfectly within the grasp of an ape’s voice. Travellers, whose veracity and ability cannot be impugned, have described long conferences held by monkeys, where one individual addressed the assembly at great length, fixing the attention of all upon himself, and quelling every disturbance by a loud and harsh cry, which was at once recognised and obeyed by the multitude. Is it credible that this should be purposeless? Is it not actually the exercise of speech?

Is it not possible—nay, even extremely probable—that, under the irresistible pressure of civilised man, his immediate precursor may have become extinct? All the human races that now tend to bridge the interval between the highest man and the highest ape are fast becoming extinct under this very pressure. The gulf widens, and will widen. The Caribs and Tasmanians have passed away, while the Australians, New Zealanders, aboriginal Americans, Eskimo, and others, are fast following in their wake, and this all in a comparatively short space of time. There is undoubtedly now a far greater physical and mental interval between the Hottentot woman and such men as Gladstone and Darwin than between the Hottentot and an ape. It is a fact beyond dispute that man was not in such a high state of development ages gone by as at present. The earliest traces of man exhibit him to us in the Palæolithic, or old stone, age, as wild and living in caves, using only the rudest stone implements with which to battle with the ferocious monsters around him. His jaw was then prognathous, like the ape, and his body large and powerful.

In the limestone caverns of France have been discovered the fossil remains of men who inhabited caves and belonged to the Palæolithic, or early Pleistocene, period. Together with these troglodytes, or cave-dwellers, were rough, unpolished stone implements and weapons, denoting a low state of civilisation. Other caves, in later strata, give us lighter stone weapons, of better finish, and occasionally horn dart-points, such as would be used for catching smaller game. Numbers of skin-scrapers also were found, suggesting the idea that the people used the hides of animals for clothing, instead of going naked, as their ancestors. The hairy character of the body would be probably giving place to a finer, smoother, and more delicate outer skin, which would necessitate clothing of some kind. Still later we find implements altogether of flint, lancet-shaped, admirably-proportioned, and of three sizes, adapted for arrow, javeline, and lance points respectively, and designed to be fitted to wooden and bone shafts. After these appear arrows and darts of deer’s horn and bone, and stone and flint tools, which were used for making these arrows. We also find such implements as bone awls and needles for piercing and sewing skins, arrow-heads furnished with barbs on each side, and harpoons barbed on one side only.

Now was man’s intellect fairly on the swing; but still he was, as yet, only in the Palæolithic period, for not one polished implement nor fragment of pottery is found in their stations. They were surrounded by ferocious carnivora, which sometimes fell victims to their weapons. The mammoth still tenanted the valleys, and the reindeer was the common article of food. They were hunters, possessed of the rudest modes of existence, and with but little of what is now called civilisation.

In Britain the troglodyte man was contemporary with the mammoth, rhinoceros, lion, and hyena, none of which existed in the later Pleistocene era; but there have been no perfect skeletons found here like those in France. Human bones, however, have been discovered in various deposits, together with the skeletons of long-extinct animals. The best British human fossil is the portion of an upper jaw containing four teeth, from Kent’s Cavern. Hermetically sealed in stalagmite, deposited on the floor of the cavern by water dropping from the roof, this jaw lay below the remains of extinct mammals; while beneath all were bone and stone implements of human workmanship, equally firmly fixed in a natural limestone cement. Geology fixes the date of this troglodyte at the early Pleistocene period, and it is beyond doubt that man existed at this remote period, or even earlier, in Europe, for the human remains found in France clearly testify to the fact; and even in America his antiquity must be very great indeed, for a human skull was found in the delta of the Mississippi beneath four different layers of forest growth, which must have formed part of a living human being 50,000 years since. The celebrated Neanderthal skull, of which so much has been heard, certainly belongs to the mammoth age, if not earlier; and, if it represent a race, and not merely an individual, that race would lie in a position intermediate between the lowest man and the highest ape. It may only represent a man of peculiar formation, as we often see men in the present day deformed or of eccentric build; and, therefore, we cannot look upon it positively as the “missing link.” One other similar find, however, would for ever settle the question, and proclaim to the world that the “missing link” was, at last, found. In capacity, the cranium is human, while the superciliary arches and the brow are distinctly ape-like. Professor Huxley sums up his examination of this skull with the remark that “the Neanderthal skull is, of human remains, that which presents the most marked and definite characters of a lower type.”

Following the Palæolithic era, or rude stone age, is the Neolithic, or new stone, age; and now we find man using polished weapons, making pottery, using fire to warm himself with, and developing social manners. Instead of living in caves, he lived in lake dwellings, with others of his species, and gradually developed agricultural tastes. This metamorphosis, we know from the fossil remains found deposited in various strata, occupied a long period of time, probably thousands of years; and even then we are left thousands of years before the historical era, which followed the bronze and iron ages. Compare these men with those who lived in the Grecian and Egyptian eras, and again compare these latter with ourselves, and the record is one of trial and failure through long ages, and of experiment crowned at last by attainment. Has not the invention of the steam-engine alone been a means of extending man’s dominion in a marvellous manner? Think what has been achieved through electricity! There has, undoubtedly, been a continued struggle from barbarism to civilisation, and the little we know of the early history of man tells us that he lived the life of a wild beast, leaving no impression on the earth save one of the victims of his well-aimed stone or flint-pointed spear.