340 THE CASE AGAINST EVOLUTION 



is that such polychrome masterpieces as the bisons, standing 

 and couchant, or with limbs huddled together, of the Altamira 

 Cave, were executed on the ceilings of inner vaults and gal- 

 leries where the light of day has never penetrated. Nowhere 

 is there any trace of smoke, and it is clear that great progress 

 in the art of artificial illumination had already been made. 

 We know that stone lamps, decorated in one case with the 

 engraved head of an ibex, were already in existence. Such was 

 the level of artistic attainment in southwestern Europe, at a 

 modest estimate, some 10,000 years earlier than the most 

 ancient monuments of Egypt or Chaldaea!" (Smithson. Inst. 

 Rpt. for 1916, pp. 429, 430.) While reaffirming our distrust 

 of the undocumented chronology of "prehistory," we cite these 

 examples of palaeolithic art as a proof of the fact that every- 

 where the manifestation of man's physical presence coincides 

 with the manifestation of his intelligence, and that neither in 

 history nor in prehistory have we any evidence of the existence 

 of a bestial or irrational man preceding Homo sapiens, as we 

 know him to-day. It is interesting to note in this connection 

 that a certain J. Taylor claims to have found a prehistoric 

 engraving of a mastodon on a bone found in a rock shelter 

 known as Jacobs' Cavern in Missouri (cf. Science, Oct. 14, 

 1921, p. 357). Incidents of this sort must needs dampen the 

 enthusiasm of those who are overeager to believe in the enor- 

 mous antiquity of the Old Stone Age in Europe. 



(11) The Rhodesian Man: In 1921 a human skull was found 

 by miners in the "Bone Cave" of the Broken Hill Mine in 

 southern Rhodesia. It was associated with human and animal 

 bones, as well as very crude instruments (knives and scrapers) 

 in flint and quartz. It was found at a depth of 60 feet below 

 the surface. The lower jaw was missing, and has not been 

 recovered. It was sent to the British Museum, South Kensing- 

 ton, where it is now preserved. Doctor Smith-W^oodward has 

 examined and described it. "The skull is in some features 

 the most primitive one that has ever been found ; at the same 

 time it has many points of resemblance to (or even identity 



