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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



tion of a few weeks in this country, 

 and, although strongly desirous of for- 

 getting all lecturing, and being left 

 quietly to himself while here, he has, 

 nevertheless, consented to give three 

 lectures during the last week of his 

 stay. He will speak in New York on 

 the 18th, 20th, and 22d of September, 

 tlie subject being " The Direct Evidence 

 of Evolution." This will give an op- 

 portunity, for those persons throughout 

 the country who are anxious to hear 

 Prof. Huxley, to connect this pleas- 

 ure with their September visit to the 

 Centennial Exhibition. It is to be re- 

 membered that these are the only lect- 

 ures that Prof. Huxley will give in 

 this country, and they will probably 

 be fortunate who obtain the tickets. 

 Detailed arrangements are not yet 

 made, but parties wishing to secure 

 seats can do so by applying to the edi- 

 tor of The Populab Science Monthly, 

 who will register applications in the 

 order in which they are received, the 

 first applicants for tickets having the 

 first choice of places. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



Prehistoric Man: Researches into the Ori- 

 gin of Civilization in the Old and the 

 New World. By Daniel Wilson, LL. D., 

 F. R. S. E. Third edition, revised and 

 enlarged, with Illustrations. In Two 

 Volumes. London : Macmillan & Co., 

 1876. Price, $12. 



The first edition of this important work 

 was issued in 1862, at a period when the 

 public mind was startled by the rapid prog- 

 ress made in archaeological discovery, and 

 by the evidence it afforded of the great an- 

 tiquity of man upon the globe. Vast col- 

 lections of implements and ornaments had 

 been made by the museums of Northern Eu- 

 rope, and by private collectors, from caves, 

 mounds, lake-borders, and drift-gravels, but 

 their value as a record of the prehistoric 

 races was a subject of animated discussion. 

 It was not admitted, excepting by those 

 familiar with the subject, that any of the 

 implements which had been brought to 

 light " implied a longer period for man than 

 that assigned by the Mosaic record." 



It was vigorously denied that flint weap- 

 ons found in the ancient drift-gravels were 

 works of art. M. Boucher de Perthes pub- 

 lished, in 1847, an account of many found 

 in the drift-gravels in Northern France, and 

 for many years " was looked upon as an en- 

 thusiast, almost as a madman." At such a 

 period the appearance of Dr. Wilson's elab- 

 orate work, and of others like it, did ex- 

 cellent service, in presenting the facts .and 

 history of archaeological science, and the 

 conclusions it suggests. 



In common with those who had made 

 the science a subject of unprejudiced study, 

 he asserted the great antiquity of man. 

 " The pre-Celtic architects of the British 

 long barrows, and the allophyliae of the Eu- 

 ropean stone age," he said, " are but men 

 of yesterday, in comparison with the Flint 

 Folk of the Drift. . . . They were a race of 

 hunters and fishers .... contemporary 

 with the Siberian mammoth and extinct ele- 

 phants the woolly rhinoceros the musk- 

 ox, and reindeer of France." 



The present volumes contain an account 

 of the principal discoveries made since the 

 first edition appeared, and treat in interest 

 ing detail of the condition of primitive man 

 on this continent the aspects of culture 

 among the mound-builders, and the miners 

 of the Northern lakes. The civilizations of 

 Mexico and Peru, and the shadowy ones 

 which preceded them, are vividly presented. 



Here, as everywhere else with primitive 

 man, the author finds proof that " art is a 

 child of necessity." Probably men learned 

 to sharpen stones for their clubs, convert- 

 ing them into spears when the club was 

 found inadequate to the necessities of their 

 condition. 



Man's earliest arts were therefore of the 

 most practical kind, not in any sense or- 

 namental. Indeed, ornamentation arose, in 

 the opinion of the author, merely by im- 

 proving the accidents of manufacture. 



The era of the Flint Folk, he observes, 

 may antedate the historic epoch by hun- 

 dreds of thousands of years, as some archae- 

 ologists insist ; " still man is found to have 

 been the same reasoning, tentative, and 

 inventive mechanician that he now is. 1 

 Nor does the author find any evidence of 

 the anthropoid link between man and the 

 brute. It is obvious, however, that much 

 depends on what constitutes evidence of 



