266 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 



what others would discard as " chips." Thus, on page 8 we 



read that — 



With almost a total absence of secondary chipping any single 

 chert flake might rank as a scraper, re-chipping is very rare. 



On page 26 — 



Should the material have fractured conveniently, little or no 

 work was expended. 



On page 31 — 



Any flake may have been apjolied to this purpose, without 

 having on it any mark of manufacture. 



These passages show that Mr. Pole was unacquainted with 

 the most elementary rules either of logic or of lithic manu- 

 facture. Scientific method imperatively demands the eli- 

 mination of all specimens which do not carry upon their faces 

 undeniable proofs of their human origin and design ; and to 

 introduce a number of " may haves " and " might have beens " 

 is only to darken counsel. In the case of objects so debatable 

 and so ambiguous as stone implements not unfrequently are, 

 the inquirer must hold fast to the legal maxim, De non appa- 

 rentibus et de non existentihus eadem est ratio. 



Mr. Pole divides his book into two parts, one concerned 

 with chert, the other with quartz implements, apparently 

 for the sake of convenience and not as implying any difference 

 in time or in phase of culture. There is, in fact, at present no 

 reason for supposing that the two materials were not simulta- 

 neously employed. When, however, he quotes from the 

 Doctors Sarasin that Ceylon quartz implements are to be 

 assigned to the Magdalenian age, he is adopting a theory 

 which will find little support among prehistorians acquainted 

 with the facts, and which is almost certainly negatived by the 

 recent discovery of pigmy implements. It was the mis- 

 fortune of the brothers Sarasin that their stay in the Island 

 was far too short for adequate collection and study of the 

 material available ; and their conclusions must be treated 

 with corresponding reserve. It is also regrettable that they, as 

 well as Mr. Pole, should have handled and actually pubUshed 

 illustrations of pigmy implements without recognizing the 

 type or the importance of the discovery. Several specimens 

 figured in Mr. Pole's PI. III. (quartz) are undoubtedly pigmies. 



