Evolution and the Darwinian theory of human descent viewed from the standpoint of a multiple primate ancestry / Charles K. Mills, M.D., LL.D., Philadelphia.

  • Mills, Charles K. (Charles Karsner), 1845-1931
Date:
[1928]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Evolution and the Darwinian theory of human descent viewed from the standpoint of a multiple primate ancestry / Charles K. Mills, M.D., LL.D., Philadelphia. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    step by step, a simple form of language developed, and this language, simple and imperfect as it was, marked an important step in human evolution. As might be expected, written language at first was largely pictorial, as illustrated by the rough representations on the rocks which have been traced to the neolithic times. Some believers in evolution seem to be worried by the idea that man’s descent should be traced through anthropoids and the intermediate primates. Apparently, according to some, man himself was an order set apart, although there is not a particle of evidence in favor of this suppo¬ sition. The truth would seem to be that man, after he started on his prehistoric journey, more or less rapidly fell away from his primate progenitors and has continued to do this through the ages down to the present. Some one has said that speech, the ability to talk, is what separates man from the lower animals. As matters stand in the world today this may be true, but in the early stages of human evolution developing speech formed one of the links that joined man with his primate fore¬ bears. In his methods of worship, in his control of the family, in follow¬ ing the chase or war, names became useful or necessary to prehistoric man. These names, as I have already said, first sprang from emotions like affection, fear and joy. Undoubtedly these also originated from the necessity to indicate parts of himself and also the world which sur¬ rounded him. Brinton, well qualified for the actual task, made a careful study of the dialects of the many tribes or nations of Mexico, Central and South America. Important studies of the dialects of tribes of North America have been made by other well known American archeologists. Much in these dialects served to link the American race together and served also to separate it from the races with other primate ancestry. These studies embraced not only the vocabularies of these tribes, but the methods of inflecting and vocalizing them; in other words, what might be termed their primitive grammar and methods of pronunciation. Of course, since the coming to the American continent of the Spanish, Portuguese, English, French, Dutch and other European people, the original Indian dialects' may have undergone changes due to European admixture; but since these linguistic studies of Brinton and others were begun, there have been regions in North and South America where the native dialects continued to be spoken in an unadulterated form. As I have said, one of the first steps taken in the development of man from the higher primates was in the use of language. An experi¬ ment made some years ago in the psychologic department of the University of Pennsylvania is interesting in this connection. Professor Lightner Whitmer, Professor Fernberger and other members of the