84 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



probability, the outcome of long periods of time, during which 

 a slow process of evolution in flint-implement making was in 

 progress. And this seems a reasonable supposition. The 

 flaking of flint is an art, one which might perhaps be termed 

 an " industrial art," and we are all aware that most, if not all, 

 art has slowly evolved, and is still evolving. It is no doubt 

 somewhat difficult for us, who are familiar with all and every 

 form of elaborately flaked flint implements, to realise that the 

 person who made the first and most primitive edge-trimmed 

 scraper or borer was, no doubt, regarded by the other members 

 of the horde as an expert flaker of flint. He was as a matter 

 of fact much more than that, he was a discoverer, a maker of 

 new knowledge, which was to be of enormous value to his 

 contemporaries and to those who lived after him. And so it 

 was with all advances in implement making : they must have 

 been epoch marking in the same way as great advances in 

 various ways are at the present day. There seems little doubt 

 from the scanty signs of improvement in the flint implements 

 of any given geological horizon, that evolution in implement 

 making proceeded very slowly. But this need not necessarily 

 cause surprise when the lack of incentive to progress, and the 

 general low standard of mental power of the primitive human 

 beings are considered. In the present paper the author 

 desires to draw attention to the apparent relationship of the 

 most ancient and primitive edge-trimmed implements (generally 

 known as " eoliths "), to the later and more highly evolved 

 palaeoliths such as are found usually in river-terrace gravels, 

 etc. The author would like it to be understood that this sup- 

 posed relationship extends only to the St. Acheul river-drift 

 implements, and that he makes no claim, at present, to associate 

 the later palaeolithic specimens of the Moustier, Aurignac, 

 Solutre, and Madeleine periods with the above-mentioned 

 edge-trimmed eolithic flints. 



It has generally been held that the beds containing the 

 pre-palaeolithic implements were separated by a considerable 

 period of time from those in which the normal palaeoliths 

 occur ; and this may or may not be true. But the author is 

 concerned solely with the form and flaking of the various 

 specimens described in this paper, and the somewhat complex 

 geological problems involved in their provenance must be left 

 to others for solution. After careful thought it has been 



