548 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



" In all these important positions," says Dr. Capitan in his eulogy, 

 " de Mortillet unfailingly brought a uniform ardor to his work, a 

 uniform activity, a clear and acute wit, and a remarkable precision. 

 He performed his numerous duties almost to the end of his life. 

 Only last month (July, 1898) he made another journey for the 

 execution of a mission which the commission on megalithic monu- 

 ments had intrusted to him." 



In connection with these multifarious labors, M. de Mortillet 

 published a considerable number of memoirs and of books of the 

 highest order. He was a transformist from the very first, and per- 

 formed all his various researches in the spirit of an evolutionist. His 

 first publications were on conchology, and numerous memoirs be- 

 tween 1851 and 18G2 related to subjects in that branch. During the 

 same period he contributed many important works on the geology 

 and mineralogy of Savoy. Among these were the History of the 

 Land and Fresh-water Mollusks of Savoy and the Basin of Lake 

 Leman, and a Guide to the Traveler in Savoy. His attention was 

 afterward more entirely directed to prehistoric archaeology and 

 anthropology, and he published in 1866 a curious Study on the Sign 

 of the Cross previous to Christianity. Of this period, too, are his 

 Promenades, or Walks, in the Universal Exposition of 1867, and his 

 "Walks in the Museum of Saint-Germain, 1869. He founded, in 

 1864, the Recueil, or Collection of Materials for the Positive History 

 of Man, which was afterward continued at Toulouse by M. E. 

 Cartailhac. In 1879 he published a work on pottery marks — 

 Potters allobroges, ou les Sigles figulins Studies par les Methodes 

 de VHistoire naturelle. In 1881, in co-operation with his son, 

 Adrien de Mortillet, as artist, he published a magnificent illustrated 

 work or album, Le Musee Prehistorique (The Prehistoric Museum) ; 

 and in 1883, the volume Le Prehistorique (Prehistoric Archaeology) ; 

 two books which have taken rank as master works. A second edition 

 of the Prehistorique appeared in 1885, and at the time of his death 

 he was preparing a third, in which he was taking great pains to 

 bring the matter up to the present condition of the science. Another 

 important work was the Origines de la Chasse et de la Peche (Origin 

 of Hunting and Fishing). A considerable number of memoirs by M. 

 de Mortillet appeared in various scientific journals, especially in the 

 two founded by him — Les Materiaux pour VHistoire primitive et 

 naturelle de V Homme, already mentioned, and L' Homme, which was 

 established in 1884. 



An epoch in M. de Mortillet's life was marked in 1873, when a 

 discussion took place at the Anthropological Congress, in Lyons, be- 

 tween him and M. Abel Hovelacque concerning the precursors of 

 man. The researches of the two masters had already led them, by a 



