PALEOLITHIC RACES 347 



of intelligent workmanship in deposits of much greater anti- 

 quity, certainly not in the remote Oligocene or Miocene. 



On the other hand, the assumption that Pithecanthropus 

 marks the highest level of contemporary human evolution will 

 certainly not pass unquestioned, unless supported by collateral 

 evidence, of which at present there is none to be found. 



The anthropoid apes make their earliest known appearance 

 in the middle Miocene (Dryopithecus, Pliopithecus) in company 

 with true Old World monkeys (Oreopithecus) : the lower 

 monkeys and lemurs had long previously been in existence. It 

 may be noted in passing that at this date the evolution of the 

 horse had proceeded as far as the stage represented by the 

 three-toed horse, Anchitherium, and that of the elephant as far 

 as the mastodon. 



If man has descended in a direct line from the anthropoid 

 apes, then we might expect to find some trace of a primitive 

 ancestor in the Miocene; if, on the other hand, as some suppose, 

 both the anthropoid apes and man are descended from a common 

 stock, then we might look for a still earlier appearance of some 

 form in the direct line of human descent. To discuss on 

 a priori grounds these rival hypotheses does not lead to enlighten- 

 ment — possibilities and probabilities may be urged on each side ; 

 but in either case it is clear that palaeontology affords no reason 

 either for or against the conclusion that primitive man was in 

 existence during Miocene times, nor on the other hand that he 

 was not. We thus gain an impartial standpoint from which to 

 review the statements of those who claim to have discovered 

 evidence of tool-making animals in various epochs of the 

 Tertiary era. 



Thenay. — The first investigator in this field was the Abbe 

 Bourgeois, 1 who in 1867 discovered a number of broken flints in 

 beds of upper Oligocene age near Thenay, a village situated south 

 of Orleans in the department of Loir-et-Cher. M. Bourgeois was 

 of opinion that they had been shaped by man, and he observed a 

 peculiar crackling of the surface which he attributed to the action 

 of fire. Distinguished investigators, d'Omalius, d'Halloy, de 

 Quatrefages, and G. de Mortillet, not to mention others, shared 

 the opinion that they showed evidence of intelligent design ; 



1 Bourgeois, "Sur les Silex considered comme portant les marques d'un travail 

 humain decouverts dans le terrain Miocene de Thenay," Congr. cPAnthr. Brux. 

 1872, p. 81. 



