Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 February 1896 — The Connecting Link. [ARTICLE]

The Connecting Link.

The evidence supporting the sensational claim of Dr. Bugrne Dubois tlmt a genuine link between man and the «|m;h had been discovered lias been submitted to recent scientific meetings, and Its subKtitutliil character is admitted by even the most conservative anatomists. The reniiilns were dug up in 18112 from the lmuk of the Bengawau river in Java, wliero they were surrounded by bones of tlie hippopotamus, the hyena, several species of deer, a gigantic pangolin, and oilier unbinds. Among all these bones there were four—a wisdom tooth, a skull-cap, a left femur, and u second molar—that undoubtedly represent an animal hitherto unknown. It seems quite certain that tlie four bones belonged to ouc individual, ultlioiigh they were scattered fifty feet hi tlio gravel. The skull lias twice the internal capacity of any mbderu ujie. but Is small for a man of the size indicated by the femur; the femur is decidedly human, and its possessor must have walked creet, but up to this time human remains have never been found in lower pleistocene deposits; the leetli are larger than human teeth, with a development tlmt is eliuiac. teristieaily simian. Pithecanthropus ercctus, us the animal Is now known, seems to be assigned by ull to a plain between existing man and apes, but opinions differ as to wlftther it was a manlike ape or an ape-like man.