956 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1897. 



turned the ideas of Baron Percy as to the eax^liest liumau wounds and 

 the orij^iu of surgery. 



lu an earlier chapter we have seen how the ages of stoue and brouze 

 had i)ractically passed away without any historical mention of their 

 existence. The begiuuing of history is subsequent to them, Nowhere 

 in the Eastern Hemisphere, nor elsewhere except among modern sava- 

 ges, have stone arrowheads been known in historic times. Arrowpoints 

 may have been used by the million in times of antiquity, but those 

 known to history, noted by historians, were all of iron or bronze; none 

 were of stone. In the army of Xerxes only one tribe, blacks from the 

 interior of Africa, had arrows tipped with stone. All others used ii-on 

 or bronze. The age of stone arrowpoints or spearheads had i)assed 

 away before the time of Xerxes. All of which only shows how sadly 

 mistaken was the author of the Manuel du Chirurgien d'Armee in his 

 opinion as to the origin of surgery and the dates of the earliest wounds 

 made by man's weapons. 



It has been thought by many persons, among them a number highly 1 

 qualified to judge, that there were no burials made during the Paleo- 

 lithic period in western Europe. Whether tliis be true or not, it must 

 be admitted that, either because of the rarity of the burials or the 

 immensity of time which has elapsed, or possibly the failure to discover 

 the graves, or for these reasons either singly or collectively, there have 

 been comparatively few of the skeletal debris of Paleolithic man found, i 

 And this would satisfactorily account for the few examples of wounds '■ 

 found. The skeletons from the cave at Cro-Magnon show evidence 

 of wounds. The femur of the man has been broken, while the forehead 

 of the woman that lay beside him bears a large gash, made apparently 

 with a flint hatchet. 



Broca, who examined these specimens, is of the opinion that the latter 

 bore traces of suppuration and evidences of healing.' 



Dr. Haray reports many of the bones in the cavern at Sordes as hav- 1 

 ing curious wounds, one a gaping wound in the right parietal of a 

 woman who, like that of Oro Magnon, must have survived the injury 

 for some time. Pieces of bone had been removed and there was evi- 

 dence of healing.^ 



There has been some question as to whether these caves belonged to 

 the Paleolithic period. It makes but little difference to the present 

 argument, for we will soon see that in the Neolithic period such wounds, 

 made sometimes by hatchets or by blows of other weapons, and some- 

 times by thrusts received by arrows or spears, were found in consider- 

 able number. 



Dr. Prunieres, of Marvajols (Lozere), France, a surgeon, anatomist, 

 and an early student of prehistoric anthropology, conducted many 

 original excavations into the dolmens, tumuli, and burial i)laces of his 



'Broca, Los Ossements des Eyzies, Paris, 1868. 



■^ Lartet aud Chaplain-Duparc, Uiie S<^pulture (l(%s AnciiMis Troglodytes des 1 'y n ik'BS. 



