Man's Life On Earth

MANS LIFE ON EARXH BY SAMUEL CHRISTIAN SCHMUCKER, PH. D. EMERITUS PROFESSOR OF BIOLOC STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, WEST CHESTER, PA. AUTHOR OF THE MEANING OF EVOLUTION THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1925 An Rights Reserved COPYRIGHT, 1925 BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped, Published May, 1925. Printed in the Uit tpd States of America by THE FBRR1S PSINTING COMPANY, NEW YORK PLATE I. RESTORATIONS OF A THE JAVA PRE-MAN, B NEANDER THAL LOWGRADE MAN, C CRO-MAGNON MAN FIRST MAN OF MODERN TYPE, RESTORED BY PROFESSOR J. H. MCGREGOR Pictures obtained from and Printed by Permission of the American Museum of Natural History. PREFACE THIS book claims no originality. It is an attempt to put into form and language intelligible to the general reader, the work of greater men who are too deeply en gaged in their researches to be able to talk to the general public. My indebtedness to them I can never repay, ex cept by passing to others as freely as I received it, the knowledge they have given me. My first and largest indebtedness, in this subject, is to the American Museum f Natural History. If I had done nothing but stand l efore their cases and study their specimens, their labels aipd their guide books, my debt would be enormous. But the men of this institution have done much more. Some of them have given me their personal friendship, have given me the accounts of their more technical researches and have helped me to obtain literature and specimens. To Dr. Osborns Men of the Old Stone Age I owe my first deep interest in this subject, and the inspiration to go further. From the publications, in journals or in book form, of Dr. McCurdy, Dr. Wilder, Dr. Hrdlicka and others I have gained much. Dr. McCurdysHuman Origins is an excellent contribution to the subject. Un fortunately for me, it came too recently for me to have made as much use of it as I should have liked. There is one man who has done more for me in this matter than any other to inspire me and to fill me with VI PREFACE a desire always so to state my beliefs as to recognize the possibility that I am mistaken, and the other man right. This man is Dr. William K. Gregory, of the American Museum of Natural History, whose accuracy of scholar ship, devotion to truth and modesty in estimating his own value exceed that of any other scientist with whom I have had the blessing of contact. Nothing I have said, however, should serve to shift to these excellent men the blame for any of my mistakes of statement or of position. The plates illustrating this book are used through the kind permission of the American Museum of Natural History and of the Lippincott Company. The figures in the text are drawn by my wife, to whose untiring assist ance and kindly stimulus, are due most of the value of what books I have written. These figures in the text are either from my own specimens or are redrawn from the publications which have made them the common possession of the science. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION The coming of the evolution theory. The old opposi tion. The stand of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Of the American Institute of Sacred Literature. CHAPTER I A FLIGHT OF THE IMAGINATION Our short memory. The length of time. Changes in the face of the earth. The geological periods. When the lizards ruled. The coming of the mammals and of their group with grasping hands. CHAPTER II A GLEAM OF EVIDENCE The importance offossils. The Asiatic hunt for fossil man. The Java find. The supposed Java half-man. The descent from the trees. Combining to hunt animals. Attempts to restore the half - man. CHAPTER III A FEW REALLY HUMAN FRAGMENTS The Heidelberg Jaw. Reconstructed Heidelberg man. The Piltdown skull and jaw. Restored Piltdown man. vii Vlll CONTENTS CHAPTER IV WHAT ARE EOLITHS Mans body is perishable. Flint implements are very durable. The first implements are hard to recognize. Later they become clear...