Pace Twelve 



EVOLUTION 



December, 1927 



Science Notes 



A CYCLOPIAN HUMAN RACE? 

 OOME of our remote ancestors, the pale- 

 *^ ozoic lizards, living probably under 

 water, had a third eye on top of the head. 

 When this third eye lost its biological use- 

 fulness, it gradually degenerated and 

 finally disappeared. The pineal gland, 

 deeply embedded in the human brain, is 

 thought to be a vestige. 



'"Will evolution stop with the present 

 two-eyed scheme, or will human beings 

 develop into a one-eyed, cyclopean race?" 

 we now are asked by Dr. Thomas Hall 

 Shastid, opthalmologist of St. Luke's Hos- 

 pital, Duluth, Minn. He reports that from 

 95 to 100 per cent, of the detail of any 

 object comes to the brain through the 

 right eye, if the person is right-handed; 

 while if he is left-handed the left eye as 

 a rule takes up the major portion of the 

 detail. This means that the human brain 

 does most of the seeing through one eye, 

 even when both eyes are open. 



In an article in the November Scien- 

 tific American, Dr. Shastid deduces from 

 this that man's right eye eventually will 

 become his only eye, and that even now 

 his stereoscopic vision is being destroyed. 



"The great cyclopean eye, however, will 

 regain stereoscopic vision by developing 

 two maculae — the most sensitive spots — in 

 the one eye, just in the fashion in which 

 many birds have stereoscopic vision in 

 each eye now," says Dr. Shastid. It will 

 probably be able to perceive as light many 

 forms of energy which now produce in 

 human eyes no sort or kind of perception." 



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A Spiral Nebula; the Question Mark 

 in the Sky 



OURS NOT THE ONLY UNIVERSE 



rjR. ALLAN DOUGLAS MAXWELL anc 

 associate astronomers of the Lick Ob 

 servatory on Mount Hamilton, California 

 have taken new measurements of the 

 Milky Way. Using a new type of spec 

 troscope, fitted on the Crossley reflector o 

 the observatory, they measured about 2.000 

 of the faintest stars, sixteen thousan 

 times too faint to be seen by the naked eye. 



According to their calculations the di 

 ameter of our universe is about 350 quad 

 rillion miles, or about 60,000 light years 

 A light year is the distance traveled by 

 light in one year's time going at a speed 

 of 186,000 miles a second. 



The farthest stars that they measured 

 are about 100 quadrillion miles from our 

 earth. This means that the light entering 

 the telescope left the star about 15,000 

 years ago. 



It is now supposed that the nebulae, 

 once believed to be incandescent gases 

 lying far beyond our universe, may be 

 other universes, in reality clouds of suns 

 so far away that the separate stars cannot 

 be distinguished. In recent years many 

 thousands of these have been photographed 

 and catalogued. It is estimated that a 

 very powerful reflector, like that at Mount 

 Wilson, is capable of pliotographing sev- 

 eral million of them. 



ARE YOU A STREET SPEAKER? 

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 Evolution, twenty copies, if you'll 

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 Address: Katterfeld, c|o Evolution. 



WHAT IS THE SCIENCE LEAGUE OF 

 AMERICA? 



fX^HE Science League of America was 

 formed in 1924 to combat the efforts of 

 Fundamentalists to abolish the teaching 

 of modern evolutionary science in tax- 

 supported schools and colleges of this 

 country. It was incorporated in 1925, 

 and maintains national offices in San Fran- 

 cisco. It has branches in several cities, 

 and members in 47 states and the District 

 of Columbia, Canada, Mexico, Hawaii, 

 Alaska, the Philippines, Cuba, Porto Rico, 

 Brazil, England and France; and in the 

 faculties of practically all important col- 

 leges and universities in the United States. 

 Membership is not, however, confined to 

 scientists, but is open to any man -or 

 woman who believes in protection of free- 

 dom in science teaching and in complete 

 separation of church and state. The 

 League is non-sectarian and non-political, 

 including both Modernists and Rational- 

 ists, and approaching the question at issue 

 from a scientific point of view. 



In every state threatened with an anti- 

 evolution law the Science League fur- 

 nishes the committee of the legislature 

 with a protest brief in the name of its 

 members in that state, and arranges for 

 a representative to speak in its behalf 

 against the bill. The state newspapers 

 are also supplied with information and 

 arguments for use in opposing the pro- 

 posed action. Besides this, over a thou- 

 sand newspapers and magazines are kept 

 regularly in touch with news of the war 

 against evolution, and from time to time 

 magazine articles are written by the presi- 

 dent giving the history and present status 

 of the anti-evolution agitation. 



Protest also is made wherever possible 

 against anti-evolution action on the part 

 of boards of education and similar bodies; 

 publicity is given to cases of dismissal for 

 the teaching of evolution; and occasional 

 educational lectures on evolution and pub- 

 lic meetings are held. The League's funds 

 are derived from membership dues — 13 a 

 year, life membership $25. Plans include 

 an extension of the work outlined above, 

 establishment of more branches in state 

 capitals for local autonomous action, and 

 possible test cases in states where the 

 fundamentalist drive has been successful. 



A leaflet more fully descriptive of the 

 work and aims of the Science League will 

 be sent on application to 509 Gillette 

 Building, San Francisco, California. All 

 readers of Evolution who are in sym- 

 pathy with the purposes of the League 

 are cordially invited to co-operate wkh it 

 as active members. 



