348 THE CASE AGAINST EVOLUTION 



Henry, had frequently dug for bombs at Kenakakoe. When 

 successful in their quest, the two were wont to carry the 

 volcanic bomb to the rocks, and to break it open for the 

 purpose of examining the inner core. Some of the bombs, 

 however, escaped this fate through being too resistent to the 

 hammer. The holes, needless to say, were not "shell-craters" 

 scooped by volcanic bombs, but ordinary excavations dug by 

 prosaic spades. Such was the simple basis of fact upon which 

 the elaborate superstructure of Jaggar's theory had been 

 reared ! Though Jaggar was, in a sense, entirely blameless, his 

 theory was pure fiction from start to finish. No scientist pres- 

 ent, however, took exception to it. On the contrary, all of 

 them appeared perfectly satisfied with his pseudoscientific 

 explanation. 



If the foregoing incident conveys any lesson, it is this, that 

 neither singly nor collectively are scientists exempt from error, 

 especially when they deal with a remote past, which no one 

 has observed. The attempt to reconstruct the past by means 

 of inference alone produces, not history, but romance. Doc- 

 tor Gregory's genealogy of Man displayed in the American 

 Museum is quite as much the fruit of imagination as Jaggar^s 

 Kilauean fantasy. The sham pedigree bears like witness to 

 the ingenuity of the human mind, but, if anyone is tempted 

 by its false show of science to take it seriously, let him think 

 of the bombs of Kenakakoe. 



