Page Six 



EVOLUTION 



January, 1929 



Man Carries His Past With Him 



By CLEVELAND SYLVESTER SIMKINS 



ON a slab before me lies the partly dissected body of a man. 

 Several things about this body immediately attract the 

 attention of one accustomed lo looking upon the human insides. 

 The muscles on the belly and chest differ from the great run 

 of men. The straight belly muscle instead of ending at the 

 lower border of the breast bone runs to the root of the neck 

 and blends with the muscle leading from collar bone to back 

 of head. This condition occurs once or twice per hundred 

 people. Very few physicians ever see it, since they usually dis- 

 sect but one body in their entire career. So it is only the trained 

 student in the structure of the human body that asks and tries 

 to answer the question: How came such variation to be? 



The easiest way to answer the question would be to call it a 

 whim of providence. But the scientific student will look for 

 possible cause. One is an injury. He finds no scars, no tough 

 bundles of repair tissue; so he discards the injury suggestion. 

 Another is faulty development. Can this be a reversion to an 

 ancestral condition ? 



The muscles on the belly of the lizard run from the pelvis 

 to the lower jaw in a continuous series, very much like the 

 muscles of the body on the table before me, suggesting the pos- 

 sibility that this is a reversion. 



If the straight belly muscle is examined in any normal man, 

 closely and carefully as the dissector does over the dissecting 

 table, four strips of gristle will be found running across it. 

 These strips did not just happen to be there. There's a reason. 

 It is found in the reptiles. 



In reptiles the belly muscles are separated into a series of 

 segments, with ribs separating the muscular bundles. Ribs on 

 the belly? Exactly. And these ribs gradually disappear as the 

 reptiles transform into mammals. But in their place is left a 

 series of strips of gristle as representatives of these ancient ribs. 

 Mankind, without exception, shows these marks of reptilian 

 origin. Monkeys and apes also show that they too came from 

 the same remote stock. 



In the same body that showed such strange condition of the 

 muscles the vermiform appendix was very long and coiled, and 

 about as big around as a lead pencil. Usually in man it is but 

 two or three inches long. In this case it was fully six, yet showed 

 no evidence of any function whatever. Why is it sometimes 

 absent in man, usually so small, and here so large? Why is it 

 present at all? Merely to plague the life of man? By no 

 means. 



Its function must be looked for in the bowels of the lower 

 animals. All animals that live upon grass, herbs and fruits 

 have a well developed caecum, corresponding to the appendix. 

 It aids them in the absorption and digestion of herbs and grasses. 

 Animals that live upon flesh have a very simple digestive tract 

 in comparison, with no vermiform appendix, or one much re- 

 duced. In the orang, a fruit eater, the appendix is long and 

 coiled, as in the cadaver just dissected. In the gorilla, living 

 upon herbs and fruits with a minimum of flesh, there is a long 

 and spiral appendix. The chimpanzee, however, whose food 

 more closely resembles that of man, has a relatively short ap- 

 pendix. 



The function of the appendix seems to have been connected 

 with the digestion of herbs and fruits. As the diet changes, so 

 does structure and form of the appendix. Man, who eats every- 

 thing, and most of that cooked, has very little need for the ap- 

 pendix, and nature is slowly getting rid of the useless structure. 

 In some individuals she succeeds in eliminating it entirely, in 

 others she only reduces it, while in still others with a strong 

 tendency to revert to ancestral type the appendix is correspond- 

 ingly large. 



The human body contains over one hundred organs that show 

 this tendency to revert to the type of man's ancient ancestors. 

 To call attention to each one of them would require a good sized 

 book. Every one of them illustrates the fact that man has slowly 

 evolved from a very lowly ancestor. 



THE GOLDEN LAW 



By FRANK GOSLING 



"-■/// matter, mind and spirit, all is mothered out of strife, 

 Tlie Iron Law of Struggle is the Supreme Law of Life".. 

 'Twos thus the poet ended. Yet, in stanzas five above, 

 He'd never mentioned altruism! No, nor Mother-love! 



Xow, half the truth won't satisfy the philosophie mind.' 

 It surety deesn't follow that we can't leave strife behind/ 

 "There never was nor will be from the strife of life surcease" 

 Is too dogmatic while 'The Riddle' plays the mystic Fleece. 



"Time never was when it was not." — The poet, p'raps, was there? 

 If not, he ought to say 'I think': the open mind won't dare 

 To use a poet's license thus in ivriting of The days 

 If'lien laws long-lasting may, perchance, have 'worked' in nllier 

 ways ! 



An early sexless being might have said "there can't be Love, 

 I've made investigation, finding nought but Push and Shove.' 

 'Time never W'as when such was not — and, therefore, don't you 



sec. 

 This tiling called Love can never, never, never, never be.'" 



.hid Sahretooth, though tasting love of mate and, p'raps of cubs. 

 Could hardly dream of oXher-love! — And that's just where it 

 rubs! — 



Of present, past and future, with Einstein knocking round. 

 We need to speak most cautiously, — he careful of our ground^ 



The pseudo-scientific misinterpretation sad 

 of Darwinism, leads to War! .Ind fraticide seems mad! 

 Kind Darwin never, never preached that we must ape the Ape~ 

 He surely guessed the other way Humanity might shape. 



It seems to be a law of nature, nature shall be fought! 

 So why not turn our human minds to bring life's strife to nought? 

 And thus, in fighting nature, win some peace for Man at least 

 With yet, perhaps, a modicum for fish and bird and beast. 



.4 quibble"? Maybe, Yes! It seems some struggle must remain, 

 We find it hard to think of Life without we think of Pain: 

 Yet talk of 'strife', unqualified, allows the babe or fool 

 To dwell upon the 'brute' and miss the Strife-won Golden Rule! 



Perpetrated 1-12-28, by F. Gosling, of 23, Newick Ro.id, Clapton, London, 

 E. 5. as an attempt to counteract the effect of the beautiful poem of Coving- 

 ton Hall in 'Evolution' (Oct. 1928). upon those who have not gone quite so 

 far in thought as he has. No offense whatever intended! 



