The Truth About EVOLUTION PLAINLY TOLD IV. Proofs of Evolution
METCALF, DR. M. M.
The Truth About EVOLUTION PLAINLY TOLD IV. Proof* of Evolution By DR. M. M. METCALF WHO OR. METCALF IS: (Dr. M.. mid M. M.t. sll It engaged In prtvatt pmnik work at th* John* Hopkins...
...As to the numerous "causes" of evolution and their relative importance there are about as many varieties of opinion as there are students of Evolution...
...As the use of an organ changes, in evolution, its structure correspondingly changes and we see a most complete series of intergrades between the earlier and the later conditions...
...The great mass of evidence of different aorts from different sources, when once seen, is overwhelmingly convincing to any normal, human mind...
...psychology, whether of normal or diseased minds, must constantly remember tha procetie* of evolution...
...callag* loology, trst »i Goueher, (hen •i Obarlia College, at Oberlin, Ohio...
...The different kinds of domestic horses, produced by human experiment, differ far more than do the different kinds of horses found in Nature...
...Evolution Going On Today Not only has evolution occurred;, it is occurring today and occurring even under man's control...
...The human tail— bony coccyx with ita rudimentary muscles—is another...
...bachelor1...
...For a teacher to fail to bear testimony to essential scientific truth ia as unworthy, as cowardly, as essentially sinful as for a man to fail to stand by his religion...
...of-the stars—is as fully established as the fact that the Earth revolves around the Sun...
...I have made species among them on the basis of distinctions for too minute to be considered for a moment as of "specific" value among, say, insects or mammals...
...Tha lungs of man correspond to the swim bladder of fishes...
...There are many genera of animals and plants in which most of all the speciea completely intergrade so * hat specific distinctions are purely artificial...
...The real struggle of the people, hcvjjdded some years later, was not ablet certain forms of government, but for "a system of society capable of delivering us from the deadly mischief of great accummulations of wealth, which enable the few rich, unfeeling monsters to starve whole nations...
...The organises produced by this present-day controlled evolution in our experiments are as divergent from one another and from the original stock as are animals and plants fti Nature...
...Discussion of the methods by which Evolution has been brought about is less essential, but the fact of Evolution must be appreciated and the evolutionary point of view must be emphasized for any understanding of the growth t>f the universe, of the Earth, of plants or animals...
...The wisdom teeth of man are approaching a vesti...
...There are in man, for example, very many structures of no conceivable present use, but showing resemblance to organs in other animals which are useful...
...I am somewhat acquainted personally with nearly all the zoologists in' America who have contributed extensively to the growth of knowledge in this field and I know many of the botanist* and a goodly number of the geologiats, and I doubt if any two of these put exactly the same relative emphasis upon all the numerous interacting "causes" of evolution...
...Those that are closely aimilar, that is closely related, we data in one species...
...our teeth were once scales in the skin...
...Many different factors have been in operation, among them probably the chief has been the mysterious intimate activities of the living substance itself, about which as yet we know so little...
...Spence assumed the existence of common land in the.natural State...
...The word species is indefinable, and ia used by biologists as a convenience, and it has wholly different meanings when applied to different groups of animals and plants...
...This is evolution of just the sort that has always occurred, only it is influenced by man's purpose...
...Much in the fields of physiology, psychology and human cultures has very im- j portent bearing upon Evolution...
...hair haa apparently been derived from tactile sense organs in the akin of aquatic vertebrates...
...The Forerunners of Robert Owen their share of the rent...
...It is contended, declared Spence, that private property originated in agreement...
...Evolution is the only key we can find...
...Four Groupa of Evidence The same sort of thing is seen in hundreds of domestic animala and plants, dogs, cattle, sheep, pigeons, cucumbers, radishes, lettuce, dahlias, roaes, wheats, corns, strawberries, peaches, apples, pears, etc., etc...
...It is interesting to observe that an organ in one kind of animal may have a different use from the similar organ in a related animal...
...Change, growth, evolution, is a fundamental, a pivotal truth in all Nature...
...dog r» at Oborlla, the degree of Doctor of Phil osophy at the Johat Hopkins University, »nd the degree of Doctor of Science at Oberlin...
...He was frequently arrested and imprisoned for hia attache on the Government, but, unmindful of his own comfort, he kept constantly at his propaganda to hit death in the hope that through his panacea the time would soon com* when mankind would b* virVious, happy and wise...
...of num....us books and articles on soology tad Evolution...
...The genus Braaaiea, planta belonging to the mustard family, include a number of different aorts of plants...
...No other suggestion even plausible, let along convincing, haa been made to explain these phenomena...
...We aan see evolution occurring in our experiment stations and our laboratories and we can control and modify the conditions of the experiments and can thus modify the resultant product to suit ourselves...
...The land ahould be restored to its natural heirs, the people...
...One set of these things, in the first, morphological group, is that of the vestigial organs in animala and plants...
...The appendix vermiformis is one structure, a mere vestige of an organ of great importance in some lower mammals...
...I have recently made about 150 species of protozoa, but I have never made an animal...
...But an agreement, to be binding, must be renewed with each successive generation...
...In the main these evidences may be arranged in four chief groups: (1) The phenomena of comparative anatomy...
...sll It engaged In prtvatt pmnik work at th* John* Hopkins University, spe< lallxlni ia nolo*, Frosi ISM to 1IU he Uagat...
...This is all true evolution and is going forward today with ever-increasing strides...
...One of these, Braaaiea oleracaa, ia the ancestor, the form from which man has evolved the cabbage, the cauliflower, kale, Brussels sprouts, Kohl rabi and the Swedish turnip, which differ among themselves far more than do the wild members of the genus Braaaiea...
...Had it been thus renewed...
...Such teaching would be criminal malpractice just as truly as would a phyaician's failure to follow established sound methods of treatment because of fear of persecution by ignorant neighbors...
...Probably there is no structure in the human body, which was not at some time used for a different purpose...
...and so on and ao on...
...NTELLIGENT teaching of A biology or intelligent approach to any biological science is,impossible if the established fact of Evolution is omitted...
...But of all these hundreds of men not one fails to believe, as a matter of course, in view of the evidence, that evolution has occurred...
...8. In the fossiliferous rocks we find actual bodily remains of organisms of the past and these form a series showing increasing complexity within each taxonomic group, the animala and plants in the older rock* being more simple, while the succe*sively younger rock* show more and more complex organiims in each group under observation...
...ate., are terms used to deaerib* tha fact that animals and planta differ among themselves and differ to different degrees...
...2) the phenomena of comparative embryology...
...It should be transferred to the parishes, the latter renting it out to farmers at moderate rental, this rental to be the only form of taxes...
...Beaidea, civil aociety came into existence to free man from burdens, not 1*9 impose new burdens upon him...
...3) the phenomena of paleontology and geology, and (4) the phenomena of geographical distribution...
...Domestic fowl under man's control have evolved into a large number of kinds far more widely divergent than are the Wild kinds in the genus Gallua from which our domestic chickens came...
...Locke had defended private property on the ground of Labor...
...In all this discussion I have not used the word "species," There are no such things as species in Nature...
...Those familiar with the phenomena of Nature testify with unanimity to this...
...There are very few, if any, structures in man, for example, which do not show clear indicationa of relationship to, descent from, an organ of different use in some related animal...
...Spence sold his tracts on the streets, shocking the good members of the Philosophical Society thereby and scaring away his pupils...
...those less closely related, but atill not too different, we place in different speciea, putting the related specie* together in one genua...
...Ihc American Society of ZaolefitU, and namerou* other «ic-ntini aaoV economic socls11.¦ Daring th* p**f ><•> he h»* baen chairaun of the National Research i ouii.il He Is salhu...
...In each of the four groups of phenomena mentioned, there are many very striking things...
...In Nature we find different kinds of animals and planta...
...certain bones connecting with the human larynx were derived from the supporting arches in the bars bei tween tha gill slits of our aquatic ancestors...
...Species, genera and so forth, are man-made pigeon hole* in which to clatiify the real animala and planta seen in Nature...
...On the other hand, there is great uncertainty as to the method by which Evolution has been brought about...
...4. The distribution of animals and plants over the Earth is such as to suggest strongly the origin of each group of animala or planta at aome one place, and their gradual apread from that canter, divergent evolution occurring while they are spreading...
...gial condition...
...A Pivotal Truth Id All Nature" The fact of Evolution—of Man, of all living things, of the Earth, of the Sun...
...An intelligent teacher could omit such emphasis only at the expense of his self respect and of his moral integrity...
...If one wishes a new vegetable or a new flower it is, within limits, true that he ran order it from the plant breeder and in a few years he will produce it...
...Teaching in any field that deals with living things is disgracefully, yes, criminally, inadequate if it omits emphasis upon Evolution...
...2. In the development of an individual from egg to adult, this individual passes through a series of stages of increasing complexity, and this individual series is one of the higher organisms strangely parallel and agrees with the racial series first mentioned...
...Evolution is a present observable phenomenon as well as an established fact of past occurring...
...and so on...
...human societies, with their diverse customs, are unintelligible without the facts of their origins and changes, their evolution...
...1. We can arrange plants and animals in a double, parallel series showing increasing complexity of organization...
...for any proper grasp of the facts of structure or function of living bodies as involved in medicine and in animal and plant husbandry...
...Hundreds of new planta and animals have been and are being produced in this way...
...To describe adequately the tremendous mass of phenomena which establish the fact of past and continuing evolution would require not a book, or a series of books, but a library...
...The words "species," "genua," "family...
...He hat membsrshtps and haa held offices In th* America* Aatoclation for Ihe Adi>ti<cnitni of Science...
...It can be only the uninformed who fail to accept Evolution as a fact established beyond doubt...
...This is true to a large degree among the protozoan forms I have been studying recently...
...H* received hi...
...Neither he nor anyone else was aware of any such renewal...
...It was this controversy that decided Spence to fight for a fundamental change in land ownership, a plan of which he submitted to the Newcastle Philosophical Society in 1775...
...The argument might hold true In the case of the manufacturer, but not in the case ef the landholder, for no one could argue that the aristocracy had created the land...
Vol. 2 • August 1925 • No. 34
