4 o SCIENCE PROGRESS 



the neoliths and palaeoliths, and there seems but little doubt 

 that the pre-palaeoliths will also be finally accepted on the same 

 grounds ; but the processes of common sense are slow and not 

 necessarily scientifically adequate, and other and more satis- 

 factory means of determining whether a flint has been flaked by 

 man or by nature ought to be available. It appears that the 

 only method likely to lead to definite and satisfactory results 

 would be to conduct a series of experiments in which flints 

 would be subjected to the effects of fortuitous percussion, and 

 pressure, and to critically compare the fractures so produced 

 with others caused by a hammer-stone held in the hand, and 

 used in the manner in which ancient man probably used it. 

 It might be urged that it is impossible to simulate experi- 

 mentally the effect of natural forces upon flints, but on the 

 other hand it seems reasonable to suppose that fortuitous blows 

 and pressure do not differ fundamentally, whether brought into 

 action by nature or in experiments conducted by a human 

 being. The " mightiness " of natural forces cannot certainly 

 be imitated experimentally, but it has been ascertained that 

 flints will only stand, without disintegration, a certain amount 

 (by no means very large and easily equalled in experiments) of 

 pressure and force of blows, and that in consequence when the 

 natural forces in operation are too mighty, the flint must be 

 shattered and reduced to fragments. The author concludes, 

 therefore, that the experiments he has conducted in the flaking 

 of flint are of value in this discussion, and though further 

 researches may be necessary before the problems connected 

 with human and natural flaking are finally and completely 

 solved, yet he feels that the results already obtained may help 

 to dispel some of the doubts and difficulties, and thus place the 

 question of the antiquity of man upon a firmer and more 

 scientific foundation. It is proposed in the first place to 

 tabulate and describe some of the details of flint fracture, to 

 which reference will be made in the description of the experi- 

 ments carried out. The nature of the experiments in which 

 flints were subjected to fortuitous percussion, and the con- 

 clusion arising therefrom, will then be described, and finally in 

 a like manner the experiments in which fortuitous pressure 

 was employed. 1 



1 A complete series of the flints fractured experimentally can be seen and 

 examined in the Department of Ethnography at the British Museum (Bloomsbury). 



