In quite a different domain from that of morphological relationship,
namely in the physiological study of the blood, results have recently
been gained which are of the highest importance to the doctrine of
descent. Uhlenhuth, Nuttall, and others have established the fact that
the blood-serum of a rabbit which has previously had human blood
injected into it, forms a precipitate with human blood. This
biological reaction was tried with a great variety of mammalian
species, and it was found that those far removed from man gave no
precipitate under these conditions. But as in other cases among
mammals all nearly related forms yield an almost equally marked
precipitate, so the serum of a rabbit treated with human blood and
then added to the blood of an anthropoid ape gives _almost_ as marked
a precipitate as in human blood; the reaction to the blood of the
lower Eastern monkeys is weaker, that to the Western monkeys weaker
still; indeed in this last case there is only a slight clouding after
a considerable time and no actual precipitate. The blood of the
Lemuridae (Nuttall) gives no reaction or an extremely weak one, that
of the other mammals none whatever. We have in this not only a proof
of the literal blood relationship between man and apes, but the degree
of relationship with the different main groups of apes can be
determined beyond possibility of mistake.
Finally, it must be briefly mentioned that in regard to remains of
human handicraft also, the material at our disposal has greatly
increased of late years, that, as a result of this, the opinions of
archaeologists have undergone many changes, and that, in particular,
their views in regard to the age of the human race have been greatly
influenced. There is a tendency at the present time to refer the
origin of man back to Tertiary times. It is true that no remains of
Tertiary man have been found, but flints have been discovered which,
according to the opinion of most investigators, bear traces either of
use, or of very primitive workmanship. Since Rutot's time, following
Mortillet's example, investigators have called these "eoliths," and
they have been traced back by Verworn to the Miocene of the Auvergne,
and by Rutot even to the upper Oligocene. Although these eoliths are
even nowadays the subject of many different views, the preoccupation
with them has kept the problem of the age of the human race
continually before us.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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