100 years ago--a prediction and alleged evidence for human evolution

And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die.
For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, that your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. Genesis 3:4-5

The belief that humanity has improved over time and will continue to do so was popular in the 1920s, and persists into the 2020s, despite evidence to the contrary. However, there was some skepticism toward one such theory of human advancement, as reported by Canadian Press and published in The Calgary Daily Herald, September 15, 1923 (bold, capitals in original):

EVOLUTION OF NEW SUPERMAN IS IN STORE FOR HUMANITY

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More Brains, Quicker in Intuition than the Mortals of Today

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PREDICTION MADE BY EDINBURGH SCIENTIST

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European Savants Inclined to Disbelieve Original Theory

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(By Canadian Press)

LONDON, Sept. 15 - Humanity is threatened with the evolution of a new type of superman, according to the discovery of Captain A.G. Pape, and Edinburgh anthropologist, who read a paper yesterday in Liverpool at the annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.

He declared that after five years' study of various types of children of American and Australian descent, he was satisfied that a new race was arising. He included among characteristic marks on which he based his theory a distinct increase in cranial development and a definite dome over the frontal region of the skull; hair fine in texture; skin smoothly grained; eyes especially luminous and intelligent and eyebrows rather prominent.

The type face, Captain Pape added, will be somewhat triangular with a narrow chin.

Not Brains Alone

The new type will not be all brains and no body, but will be quick in intuition. The new race, in Captain Pape's view, would show a disposition for a diet without meat and coarse foods and would not have a large appetite along any line.

The forerunners of the new race showed an inclination to be playful and mischievous. The type needed sympathetic understanding.

The discussion which followed the reading of Captain Pape's paper indicated that the arguments advanced in support of the captain's theory were not convincing. The audience showed incredulity. One member declared that the race outlined by the captain appeared to be tubercular degenerates.

As reported in the Montreal Gazette, September 15, 1923 (bold, capitals in original):

TWO UNKNOWN TYPES OF HUMAN FAMILY FOUND

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'Rhodesian Man' and 'Nebraska Tooth' Recent Discoveries

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DOMAIN OF FOSSIL MAN

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Features Regarded as Purely Human Found in Baby Apes--Not in Adults

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Special Cable to the New York Times and Montreal Gazette

Liverpool, Sept. 14 - Interest in the chemical and physical sections was a notable feature of the meeting of the British Association today. The theatre of the university has proved too small for the large attendance at the lectures, and there is every indication that this year's meeting will be one of the most successful in the history of the association.

Five more presidential addresses were delivered today, and among others of great interest was that by Professor Elliot Smith, delivered before the whole association in Philharmonic Hall. Taking as his subject the study of man, Professor Smith said that the recent discovery of the remains of "the Rhodesian man" and of "the Nebraska tooth" had added two hitherto unknown types of the human family, and had also extended the domain of fossil man to two more continents. It was now possible to construct the family tree of man and his nearest allies and to draw certain inferences as to the nature of the evolutionary changes that had occurred in the humabn family since it first came into existence.

One of the most peculiar results of such studies was the fact that some of the traits regarded as distinctive of the higher races of men were found in the new-born members of the lower races, and were subsequently lost by them. Certain features usually regarded as distinctive of man were found in new-born gorillas and chimpanzees, but not in adults. The truth was that the apes were more specialized than man. In adaptation to their particular mode of life they have lost many primitive characteristics which he had retained, but at the expense of losing plasticity and adaptability, which the most valuable parts of the human make up. It was only by realizing this feature of human psychology, he said, the history of man could be understood.

After giving a summary of the mode of evolution of the human brain, as based fundamentally on the development of the power of vision, the lecturer argued that comparative anatomy should be linked with psychology, and both with the history of culture. Only on such a basis could the true science of man be built up.

Rhodesian Man (Homo rhodesiensis) was a species name devised by the English palaeontologist Sir Arthur Smith Woodward (who fell for the Piltdown Man hoax) to classify Kabwe 1, a cranium (that's all, folks, just a cranium) discovered in a mine in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) in 1921. As is so often the case with man's alleged ancestors, much of the science surrounding Rhodesian Man consists of guessing, and Homo rhodesiensis is now widely regarded as synonymous with Heidelberg Man (Homo heidelbergensis).

As for Nebraska Man, whose status as an ancestor of modern man was based on the discovery of a single tooth, his disappearance from the list of man's ancestors was announced in February 1928 when the tooth turned out to be from an extinct peccary. See my post 90 years ago: Nebraska Man suddenly disappears from the list of modern man's alleged ancestors (February 18, 2018).