February, 1931 



EVOLUTION 



Page seven 



Is Man Blood-Cousin to the Ape? 



A y^AN\ persons become indignant when it 

 ■^ ■'■ is suggested that man is probably a dis- 

 tant cousin to the ape. Let us see. 



Scientists of the LJniversity of Cambridge 

 and elsewhere carried out extensive and careful 

 experiments with a view to testing the conclu- 

 sions of comparative anatomists and geologists 

 relative to the descent and relationship of the 

 various genera and species of animals, includ- 

 ing man and the higher apes. 



Some three million years ago, primitive 

 lemurs abounded in the region now known as 

 Wyoming and New Mexico, also in certain 

 parts of France, as is attested by their fossil re- 

 mains. Many zoologists believe that the mon- 

 key family originated in western North Amer- 

 ica, later spreading from this region to Europe, Africa and 

 Asia, as in the case of camels and the rhinoceros family, which 

 are almost certainly of American origin. The lemurs are 

 now abundant only in Madagascar, but are found in small 

 numbers in the tropical forests of Africa and Malaysia. 



By MAYNARD SHIPLEY 



Another "confession" 

 of an evolutionist turns 

 out to be a misquotation. 

 The Fundatnentatist Rev- 

 erend W. B. Riley quoted 

 the author of this article 

 as admitting that "man 

 has a line of descent of 

 his own, and not con- 

 nected with any other 

 species." What Mr. Ship, 

 ley really said — some- 



Omitting details, it may be explained that 

 the precipitin reaction consists in the fact that 

 if the colorless part of the blood, which remains 

 after clotting, be taken from a human being, 

 and injected into the veins of a rabbit, the blood 

 serum of the latter will develop an anti-body, 

 analagous to the anti-toxin which is produced 

 in the blood of a horse by the injection of diph- 

 theria virus. After several such injections, and 

 a few days after the last injection, if the rabbit 

 is killed and bled, the serum taken can be 

 shown to be an "anti-human" serum. When 

 brought into contact with human blood it causes 



thing very different — is the formation of a white precipitate; but if the 



here told. 



foreign blood is that of some mammal only 



distantly related to man, the reaction is very 



feeble, exhibiting only a certain cloudiness. But if the foreign 



blood is that of a chimpanzee, gorilla, orang-utan, or gibbon, 



the precipitate is thrown down! 



The amount of the precipitation is a measure of the closeness 

 or distance of relationship. Passing from the manlike apes to 



This line of descent of the man-like apes from the lowly the lower forms, the reactions become progressively weaker, 



lemur can be established by various lines of evidence as rea- until the Lemuroidea (half-apes) are reached, when only a 



sonably certain. It can also be shown that man himself slight reaction occurs — indicating slight blood relationship, 

 has descended from the same common ancestor as gave rise In Austria and Germany, the "precipitation method" is em- 



to the man-like apes, and is, moreover, a veritable blood rela- ployed by the police in the detection of criminals. For ex- 



tive of the great apes. To test this theory in the light of blood ample, a suspected person is brought before a magistrate and 



immunity and blood relationship was one of the tasks set for charged with murder. On his sleeve blood-stains are dis- 



themselves by Professors C. H. Nuttall, G. L. Graham-Smith, 

 and T. S. P. Strangeways, all of Cambridge. 



So long ago as 1875, Landois had shown that the introduc- 

 tion of the blood of a foreign species into any animal resulted 

 in the disintegration of the minute, disk-shaped corpuscles, or 

 cells, which float in the watery fluid (serum) of the blood. 



covered. "Where did these come from?" inquires the magis- 

 trate. "I was killing a chicken," replies the suspect. Now 

 comes the blood test. The blood stains are soaked in a very 

 weak solution of common salt, and, if necessary, the blood 

 solution is filtered until it is quite limpid and clear. Into this 

 blood solution a few drops of the "anti-human" serum are con- 



It was found that the serum of one family of animals (but veyed; and if the stains are of human blood, a white percipi- 



not one species) destroys the cells of another. Thus, the blood 

 of the wolf or the fox may be transfused into the dog, (or 

 vice versa) , or the hare into the rabbit, or the horse into the 

 donkey, without dissolving the cells. The cells are dissolved 

 if blood of two species not closely related is so transfused. 

 Friedenthal later showed that human blood serum dissolves 



tate is thrown down; but not if the stains are of the blood of a 

 fowl — or of any animal except man or an anthropoid ape. 



Many a murderer has been detected by this simple method. 



Anti-bovine serum, or any other, may be produced in the 

 same way. Thus physiological tests have confirmed degrees 

 of relationship already established between animals by other 



the red blood corpuscles of fishes, amphibians, birds, such mam- researches of anatomists and palaeontologists, showing that 



mals as the cat, horse and even the lower monkeys; but not 

 the cells of the anthropoid (man-like) apes! Finding that the 

 blood of the chimpanzee and of the human can be transfused 

 with impunity, this experimenter concluded that this fact 

 proved the four manlike apes and human beings are blood 

 relatives, since the blood cells of all animals not closely related 



the close anatomical resemblance between the four higher an- 

 thropoids and man really means a blood relationship. 



These facts do not, however, imply that man is descended 

 from one or the other of the existing man-like apes, or that 

 the latter are evolving toward the human estate. Man is no 

 more descended from the gorilla or orang than those apes 

 are descended from the chimpanzee or gibbon. Man and the 



are destroyed or injured in proportion to their relationship. 



During the years 1897-99, the so-called "precipitin reaction" anthropoid apes are branches of the tree of hfe, and if we trace 



^ test was discovered and developed by Kraus, Tchistowitch and these branches from their tips back to the common trunk, we 



Border, and by this new method the monumental researches find there a common ancestor of both apes and man; and, to 



were carried on at Cambridge by Nuttall and his associates, go still farther back in time — millions of years ago — we should 



on a quantitative basis, establishing the degree or closeness of eventually find the common ancestor of all mammals — the first 



relationship of nearly all genera of animals now living. warm-blooded quadruped that suckled its young. 



