WORMS
707
WORMS
begun. So far Franco oxhibits the greatest number cording to Morlot the Finiere required only a period
of the abodes and hunting-places of pre-historic man. of 10,000 years to form the cone-shaped bank at its
These and all others whose jjlace in the stratification mouth on the Lake of Geneva. In this bank Roman
can be unequivocally detprmined indicate that the bricks were found at a depth of r2 m.; two metres
first appearance of man in Europe must be referred deeper, earthen vessels and a pair of bronze tongs;
to the middle of the Quaternary glacial period. This and about 3 metres still deeper, rude pottery and the
fact has been established by the investigations of bones of some domestic animals. The remains dating
Penck, but especially by those of Boule and Ober- from the Roman period form the none too reliable
maier, who refer the event to the third intermediary basis for the calculation. On the ground of these and
glacial period. similar calculations Schaafhausen gives the age of
The age of the human race is thus largely bound up mankind as 10,000 to 1.5,000 years, which, however, with the question of the time of the Quaternary glacia- is purely an estimate. One thing at least is certain: tion of Europe. We have already given the calcula- instead of the 100,000 and more years formerly given, tions of James Croll, based on astronomical principles, the age of mankind may with much greater probabil- which place the conclusion of this period about ity be placed at about 10,000 years as the mean ap- 80,000 years ago and its beginning about 240,000 proximation. We are thus approaching ever nearer years ago, so that the first appearance of man would, to the chronology of the Bible, according to which according to this estimate, have occurred some 160,- the Jews reckon that 5673 years have now (1912) 000 years ago. But, apart from the fact that Croll's hypotb(>- sis is based on errone- ous assumptions, it has been recognized that all the earlier fig- ures for the age of mankind (Lvell, 100,- 000 to 200,000 years, Lapparent, 230- 240,000 years) must be greatly reduced. For example, it has already been men- tioned that the time which Niagara re- (luired to recede 12 km., estimated by Lycll at 36,000 years,
is now given by Gilbert and Woodward as not more than 7000 years. Similar condi- tions (the recession of a waterfall since the glacial period) may be studied on the Mississippi in Minnesota, and Winchell came to the astonishing conclusion that this river did not require more than .SOOO years to excavate its course. A study of some Scandinavian rivers leads to the same conclusion, and the waterfall on the Tosa, a tributary of Lake Mag- giore which ha.s existed since the glacial period, indi- cates a much shorter interval.
.\nother method for estimating the age of the cultural remains of Diluvial man is based on the thick- ness of the layers of clay which is pressed down as dust in the interior of protected caves. As an example may be taken the cave known as Teufelsloch at Stram- berg, near Neutitschcin in Moravia. This contains traces of man from the lower layer of the Pr.la'olithic age up to the present. Not far from the entrance, the thickness of the uppermost layer, which extends back to the late pre-historic period, measures .30-70 cm. Below this is found cave clay 30-50 cm. in depth with post-glacial prairie animals and cattle, and still lower 30-40 cm. of earth with glaci.al prairie animals. The
last layer contains most of the traces of man, espe- dembl. /. .jnthrop.CiS^O); Kokzk, Dt cially the lower stage of the Early Stone age. One """■"• '^"- ■"' •'" "^ may thus estimate the interval since man's first appearance at from 8000 to 10,000 years. Other calculations based on the deposits made by rivers etc. are much more uncertain, inasmuch as .some catas- trophe (e. g. an avalanche) might bring more matter in one day than would otherwise be conveyed in 100 years. However, the latter calculations have also their sponsors. Thus, Heim ha.s estimated the post- glacial period at 16,000 years on the basis of his obser- vations made on a moraine in the Lake of Lucerne;
The Cathedr.\l, Worms
elapsed since the
creation of the world,
or rather of Adam.
Thomson, De moiu caloris per terra: corpus (Glasgow, lS4fi) ; Idem, On the Secular Cooling of the Earth, in Trans. Royal Soc. XXIII (E.linliurgh, I8fi2); Idem. Tlir Age of the Earth, in Xature, LI (1894-95): King. The Age of the Earth, in Am. Jour. of Science, XLV (1893); Terry. On the Age of the Earth, in Nature, LI (1894-95); Becker, The Age of the Earth, in Smitlmon. Misc. Coll., LVI (1910). vi; Darwin, On the Precession of a Viscous Sphirruifl and on the Remote History of the Earth, in Phil. Trans., CLXX (1,879); Idem. On Elements of the Orbit of a Satellite
the Secular Changes
revolving about a Tidnlly Distorted Planet, ibid., CLXXI (1880); Tammann. Krislallisieren u. Schmehen (Leipzig, 1903); Thienne, Temperalur u. Zustand des Erdinnern (Jona. 1907) ; Ahrhenics, Lehrbuch d. kosmischen Physik (Leipzig, 1903) ; Geikie, Le temps geot., in Rev. scientifique, XVI (1899).
Lapparent, TraM de gfol. (2nd ed., Paris, 1885) ; Neumatb AND Uhlig, Erdgesch. (Leipzig, 1S95); Walther, Gesch. der Erde u. des Lebens (Leipzig, 1908); Koken, Die Vorwelt u. ihre Ent- wicfclungsgesch. (Leipzig. 1893); Kreichgauer and Waagem, Un-fere Erde (Munich, 1909); Rudski, Ueber eine Methode, die Daucr der geolog. Zeit zu schdtzen, in Petermanns Geogr. Mittel., XLI (1895): Idem, Sur Vdge de la terre, in Anzeigcr Ak. Wiss. Krakau (1901).
LoziNsKi, Die chem. Denudation, ein Chronometer der geol. Zeitrechnung, in Mitteil. geograph. Ges., XLIV (1901); RoMER, O u'icku ziemi, in Kosmos, XXV (Lembcrg. 1900); Mellard Reade, Chemical Denudation in relation to Geol. Time (London, 1879); Idem. Denudation of the Two .imericas (Liverpool, 1885).
Rutherford. Ratiioartivity (Cambridge. 1905); Strutt. The Accumulation of Hi Hum i/i Geal. Time, I-IV, in Proc. Royal Soc, LXXX-LXXXIV (1908-11); Idem, The Leakage of Helium from radioactive Muierah, iljid., LXXXII (1908); Idem, .Measure- ments of the Rate at which Helium is produced in Thorianite and Pitchblende, ibid., LXXXIV (1910-11); Becker. Relations of Radioactivity to Cosmogony and Geology, in Bull. Geol. Soc. A mer- ica, XIX (1908); SoDDY, Radioaktititat (I.cipzig. 1904); MuooE. Radioaktiriiat u. pleochroitische ll6fe, in Centralblatt fir Miner- alariie (1907-09); Doelter, Das Radium u. die Farben (Dresden, 1910) : Ko.niohbergeh. Bcrechnung des Erdalters aufphysikalischer Grundlagc, in Gevlog. Rundschau, I (1910).
ScHAAFHArHEN, Das Alter der Menschenrassen, in Corrrspon' ■' .' . : ;" "■ ~iici( (Tubingen. 1896);
ScHANz, Das Alter des Menschengeschlccles (Freiburg. 189G); Penck, Die alpinen Eiszeithildungen u. der pr&histor. Mensch, in Archiv. f. Anthrop. (1903); Oberhaier. Das geol. Alter des Men- sch en gesrhlechtes, in Mitteil. geolog. Ges. Wien (1908); Klaatsch, Entstehung u. Entun'eklung des Menschengeschlechtes in Weltall u. Menscheit, II (Beriin. 1907); BumOller. Aus der Urzeil desMenschen (Munich, 1907); Hoerneb, Natur- u. Vrgesch. des Menschen (Leipzig, 1909).
LuKAS Waagen.
Worms (WoRMATiENSis), a city and former diocese
on the Rhine in the present Grand Duchy of Hesse;
the origin of the city is obscure. In the Roman era
Bruckner suggests 14,000 to 15,000 years, based on the district of the Vangiones was includc^l in Upper
observations of the alluvial deposits of the Aar. Germany. Julius Ca".sar .settled this small tribe in
Both these figures may, however, be too high. Ac- and around the Celtic Vicus Borhetomagus. From
