The Omaha Sunday Bee Magazine Page
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THE ANGELS DRIVING ADAM AND EVE FROM EDEN.
The Artist A. T. Nowell't Remarkable Conception of the Bibical Story Which Professor Darwin -Beasley Considers a Premonition of Man' Final
' .-rrk - .".r; ; "Fall and 'Not a'HUto'ry of. Hu FirsL'. ' Supplied by Autotype Fine Art Co., Ltd.
By Prof. C. Darwln-Bcasley
of th Unlvarslty.of London, '
THROUGH millions of yer, racs
after raco of animals has suc
ceeded each other, each race be
ing of a higher type structurally than Its
Immediate predecessor. It follows that
man himself will hare a successor In a
ettll higher type of being. This may come
about at any moment by eome natural
convulsion Induced by an astronomlo dis
turbance or other natural phenomenon,
euch as has undoubtedly many times
caused great changes on the earth's sur-
ace- . .v..
In each prior disturbance, such as that
Induced by the increased weight of
ice caps causing the earth to tilt over
and assume a new position in respect to
the sun. a few genera of animals have in
variably escaped and survived to speclal
lze in new functions to meet the new
conditions of environment.
The next colossal convulsion is not rat
off. and it will most probably occur
through the abnormal increase of Ice
forming in the Antarctic regions. When
that happens, birds will be best fitted to
escape. Enough of them in various parts
of the world will undoubtedly survive to
found the new and higher race.
Remember that birds and mammals
alone have specialised in brains and
have built up in their skulls ample brain
case at the expense of other bone.
With the brainier man and other hramy
.it th bird, having
"become the dominant being, will have to
Birds Man's Rival in Intelligence ByProf.w.H.if.Baiiou,scD.
THE theory that mankind will be
superseded by a race of super
birds, which will control all the
earth as man does now, Is not entirely a
new one to scientists.
Birds have continuously evolved, in
one torn or another, sine the Juraeslo
era It is also noted that they have sur
vived the several natural convulsions
end phenomena occurring since then,
such as the evaporation of water in large
areas of the world during the hot Mio
cene period, the various glacial epochs.
"Further confirmation, bearing on the
point, is the admission by the distin
guished Professor J. Arthur Thompson,
of the University of Aberdeen. He says:
"There is a poeelbility of a vast in
ereae ef Intelligence, of brain Impreve
meM, ainHlar te that of man ana the
primates, as le Inetanced In reeke, era nee
and parrete. There la alee a chance far
larger changes . In cenetitutlen
habits!" . ...
It Is also to be noted that when a bird
finds a new form of food he abandons the
use of certain functions and utilises new
means to capture it. Hla descendants,
continuing his efforts, specialise in new
functions until there is a complete
change and an entirely new form of bird
la produced.
There are ample instances In support
of this. The penguin affords one of the
most drastic incidents of natural selec
tion. It is a general proposition that a
bird must have feathers. The ancestral
penguins, therefore, must have had them.
Being unable to escape the Antarctic
regions when the ice cap commenced
forming they specialized la several radi
cal ways. Gradually their feathers be
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further specialize, as man did, through
thousands of years largely In brain alone. '
The bird brain to-day has already
ample cerebrum. Its descendants in the
new era will have first to specialise in
convolutions of the brain, each new con
volution increasing this intelligence.
They will have to cultivate next for a
long period brain cells, with which
thought is produced and stored In the
form which we call memory.
This development Is not only possible;
it is Indeed the way In which nature has
always worked her will in the world.
That it would take ages to accomplish
means nothing. - The life of the whole
human race from the time it emerged
as ape man until to-day is only an Instant
in geological time. Forms perish, nature
endures. .
- Humanity's vision of the angels, a
higher form of life as winged beings. Is,
I believe, his clairvoyant perception of
his own doom and the race that will fol
low him. All his Ideas of future life take
the form of wings. The vision is simply
the far-seeing of humanity that confuses
with itself the actual creature that will
follow It Angels, winged things, will
rule the future world, but they will not
' be transformed humanity. They will be
Intellectual birds I
- la material things of to-day, the bird
man is another expression of the same
thing. It is either that or else it is an
instinctive or unconscious effort of man
to prepare himself for the struggle when
he will have to compete with this future
bird-race. The flying machine has been
gradually perfected by mastering essen
tial details of bird flight. In its perfected
came something between scales and
hairs.
This new coating not being warm
enough they accumulated tat sufficient
to defy the Antarctic eold and storms
and enjoy themselves. The penguin
further specialized wing power for swim
ming only, until the wings became pow
erful paddles, moved by strong breast
muscles, and leg power for walking. The
latter is so powerful that when walking,
as be does in a straight line, he forces
movable objects out of bis way, and not
even a mau can stop him.
Birds vary the use of their limbs to
suit circumstances. The steamer duck
of the Falkland Islands is a conspicuous
instance. In youth these birds fly about
like their kind in general. As soon as
the adult stage Is reached they abandon
flylag altogether, aad use wings and feet
for swimming only.
The hoactzln of Britlsh-Gulana is an
other striking Instance. Boon after
hatching the young birds begin to travel
by means of legs and wings. They have
well developed claws on the thumb and
finger, by which they book on to limbs
or other objects. If taken by the legs
they hang on to something with bill and
wings. If their nest falls down they
cling to the branches with bill, wings
and feet Later they take to true flight.
The ostrich specialized in running,
and on local American pacing tracks has
about equalled the trotting horse by
hauling a sulky and man at the near
record speed of 2:10. He' apparently has
never attempted flight, whatever bis an
cestors did. He utilizes his rather large
wings and long feathers to assist in
running.
The migrations of birds undoubtedly
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form It is a bird mechanism combined
with a human brain.
The coming super-race will necessarily
approximate the same thing in a more
compact form, in a single Individual
Great powers of flight and long endur
ance in air, while the earth below is un
dergoing its tremendous convulsions, will
be essential for survival. The birds which
can fly the highest above the poisonous
gases unloosed, and encircle the globe If
necessary, In the search for surviving
food, will have the best chanee to ultl-
mately escape and found this new race.
Unless man can do the same thing with
an aerial machine, he will perish Just as
the beasts and beings that walk or crawl.
But he cannot possibly by invention
hope ever, to accomplish survival, even
in Isolated instances, during the per
sistence of a world convulsion, although
many may escape results of minor dis
turbances. Fuel for his mechanism would
, be Impossible to secure. His own struc- '
ture is unfitted for indefinite endurance
in air. The bird alone Is hardened to
aerial indefinite endurance and hence is
the only earthly being available with
which to found the super-race.
What birds would be best equipped te .
survive a world convulsion? It requires
only a layman's knowledge to answer
that From the standpoint of science, we
know that only carnivorous animals have ,
been dominant in each age of the world,
and that each highest type that has
arisen after each convulsion has been a
carnivore. We know that of existing
types the birds of prey, such as condors,
vultures and eagles, also storks, adju
tants and pelicans, have the powers of
are indicative of their greatest intelli
gence. Books bave been written about
them, but I happen to have from the Rus
sian Government data far mora remark
able than that found in books. Siberia,
the coldest storage reservoir extant the
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Penguins of the Antarctic Continent, a Strangely Human Raca of Birds
Wtto Now Dominate That Part of the World o. b, sir Dofu.
copyright, IMS. by the star Co r.t r.i- -hts iu..rv.a.
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the loftiest flight, some of them rising ta
six miles altitude. They alee have great
endurance in the rarefied regions of at
mosphere. If any mountain tops re
mained, they could readily reach them.
If any food existed anywhere, they could
surely find it. Carnivorous birds are not
subject to ptomaine poisoning, so far as
we know.
The next class of birds that have the
longest endurance in air, far greater than
of the birds of prey, are the sea birds,
especially the man-of-war bird, albatrosa,
petrels, some gulls, etc. Of these, the al
batross travels Immense distances with
out moving the wings, by his wonderful
power of soaring. If the convulsion were
merely a water affair, such as the flood,
they would not know it existed, so much
are they at home on water, in air above
the water, and even In the water itself up
to certain depths when diving for food.
None of these birds, however, are so well
equipped with cerebrum in brain case as
certain land types, which also have great
endurance in flight such as the pigeon
tribe. Their better brain alone, however,
' would save many of them, since even if
they were hunted by the carnivorous
'. birds, they could escape because of su
perior Intelligence.
- The super-bird of the next geological
era, then will be first a carnivore. He
' will be subject to no destroying pto
maines' nor any of the diseases which
cause mortality of man and other mam
mals. He will be at home at all alti
tudes. His flight will not be limited by
mere globe girdling nor necessities of
loBg endurance in air. As to-day, the
birds , of prey will have dominion oa
year around, attracts the largest number
of species for Bummer nesting. Birds as
semble there for nesting from many parts
of the Old World, arriving and departing
annually on very exact dates, as If moved
by clockwork.
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The Astounding Theory of
An English Scientist That
Intellectual and Carnivorous
Birds Will Supplant Hu
manity and That Our Ideas
of Angels and the Expulsion
From Eden Are Simply
a Prevision of Our Doom
SCIENTISTS are agreed that man has attained his positloa as master
of the world only through a series of accidents and a prolonged
conflict with nature. They are also agreed that he malntalnes
his position only by an unceasing fight against natural forces. Before
man, other animals occupied the place of the dominant spceies, and
there are sections of the world where even now another species than
man is dominant inhabitant There are, for Instance, certain African
stretches where the mosquito is ruler, and in the Antarctic the quaint
Penguin is practically monarch of the frozen stretches.
Bernard Shaw, the great English philosopher, baa recently pointed
out that man is not measuring up In all ways to the destiny that he so
valnglorloualy assumes for himself that of final master of his planet
Mr. Shaw has predicted that humanity must give place, sooner or later,
to a super race and sink bark to the level of a domestic animal "per
haps be wiped out II. G. Wells, an equally famous scientific prophet,
has taken the same point of view. He, unlike Mr. Bernard Shaw, has
predicted the actual creation which he tinks will take place of man -the
spider!
The following remarkable article by Professor C. Darwin-Beaaley, of
the University of London, deals with the same question and makes the
astonishing prediction that a race of super-birds wwlll some day rule the
world.
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land, and the sea birds on sea. Left
alone, with all the other animal
life destroyed, they will be forced
to specialise In brain power.
Their ultimate descendants will
have complete dominion on land,
sea and in air, besides being self
clothed.
They will, as their brains In
crease in power and they become
more and more social, build bird
cities. The nest will no doubt
give way to habitations of great
architectural beauty, Just aa man's
early caves and tree shelters still
' form the basis of his elaborate
, Skeleton of a Bird's Wing Com
pared with a Human Arm and
Hand, and Skeletons of Man and
Bird, Showing the Close Resem
blance Between the Anatomy of
the Twe.
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Winged Beings Who Rule on Mars, a. Imagined by II. G. WeHa. A
Conception of a Dominant Kacej Regarded by Scientists as Rational.
architecture of to-day. Although
they are self-clothed, they will no
doubt seek further adornment The
bower bird of India ornaments his
nest and collects beatulful stones
even now. There will be bird
fashions.
Gradually a new life will cover
the world, to be la its turn de
stroyed and another race of entire
ly different beings take its place.
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