4 THE REALITIES OF MODERN SCIENCE 



mankind when its scientific knowledge was only suf- 

 ficient to maintain a fire and not to start one. It 

 is no wonder that religious rites grew up about the 

 tribal fire and that special caretakers were dedicated 

 to it. 



While early man was learning some of the uses of fire 

 and how to conserve and control it, he was also develop- 

 ing tools and through their use making advances in 

 clothing and shelter. His first tool might have been 

 a stone. Perhaps, while lying on the floor of his cave, 

 he was frightened by the entrance of a wild beast and 

 his hand closed over one of the small stones which he 

 had earlier brushed aside to make a smoother bed. He 

 fought blindly and the stone slipped from his grasp. 

 A chance hit, the astonished beast turned tail, and he 

 was saved. 



The next time he was attacked he may have remem- 

 bered the episode of the cave and used a stone again. 

 If his brain was not sufficiently developed for him to 

 connect the act with the flight of the beast he was 

 probably eaten for his ignorance. Those families or 

 tribes which quickest learned this use of stones were 

 fittest to survive. 



A peaceful use of stones as agricultural tools may 

 or may not have preceded their use as weapons. Early 

 man, we believe, dug for roots and in certain seasons 

 these were the only succulent food which he could 

 obtain. While burrowing with his hands he might 

 strike a stone and instinctively grasping it continue 

 the same digging motion. If the stone happened to 

 be the right shape he found to his surprise that his 

 work went faster and easier. Later he may have tried 



