114 



DISCOVERY 



CH. 



age to make sensational announcements upon a slender 

 basis of fact ; but science suffers by such premature 

 publication. Festina lente must be the motto if the 

 steps forward are never to be retraced. Test all things, 

 and you will then be in a position to hold fast by that 

 which is true. 



When about the middle of the nineteenth century, 

 evidence was being found of man's existence upon the 

 earth for a period long anterior to the seven thousand 

 years or so of the Semitic tradition, it was regarded 

 with suspicion by men of science as well as the world in 

 general. M. Boucher de Perthes, antiquary, archaeo- 

 logist, and gentleman of France, announced in 1846 that 

 an ancient flint implement had been found associated 

 with bones of elephant, rhinoceros, and other extinct 

 animals in gravel exposed during excavations for the 

 construction of a canal at Abbeville. When three years 

 later he asserted that numbers of rudely worked and 

 chipped flint implements had been found with remains 

 of extinct mammals in the same undisturbed beds of 

 gravel, geologists gave no heed to his announcement, 

 and he was regarded as an amiable visionary. Dr. 

 Rigollot, of Amiens, appears to have been the only 

 naturalist in France who took the trouble to examine 

 the ground personally, with the result that he came 

 away convinced of the accuracy of M. de Perthes' 

 observations. The conclusions of both observers were 

 either scorned or discredited by the rest of their 

 countrymen for several years ; and it was an Englishman, 

 Joseph Prestwichj who ultimately proved them to be 

 correct. 



Dr. Huch Falconer saw M. de Perthes's collection of 



o 



flint implements, including a flint hatchet, in 1858 ; and 

 he wrote to Sir Joseph Prestwich asking him, as a 



