Sept. 7, 1876] 



NA TURE 



409 



was covered with pine forests inhabited by Capercailzies, such as 

 now only occur further north in Norway, A little earlier we 

 find that reindeer were common even in the South of France, 

 and still earlier this animal was accompanied by the mammoth 

 and woolly rhinoceros, by the arctic glutton, and by huge bears 

 and lions of extinct species. The presence of such animals 

 implies a change of climate, and both in the caves and gravels 

 we find proofs of a much colder climate than now prevails in 

 Western Europe. Still more remarkable are the changes of the 

 earth's surface which have been effected during man's occupa- 

 tion of it. Many extensive valleys in England and France are 

 believed by the best observers to have been deepened at least a 

 hundred feet ; — caverns now far out of the reach of any stream 

 must for a long succession of years have had streams flowing 

 through them, at least in times of floods — and this often implies 

 that vast masses of solid rock have since been worn away. In 

 Sardinia land has risen at least 300 feet since men lived there 

 who made pottery and probably used fishing-nets ;^ while in 

 Kent's Cavern remains of man are found buried beneath two 

 separate beds of stalagmite, each having a distinct texture, and 

 each covering a deposit of cave-earth having well-marked 

 differential characters, while each contains a distinct assemblage 

 of extinct animals. 



Such, briefly, are the results of the evidence that has been 

 rapidly accumulating for about fifteen years as to the antiquity of 

 man ; and it has been confirmed by so many discoveries of a like 

 nature in all parts of the globe, and especially by the comparison 

 of the tools and weapons of prehistoric man with those of modern 

 savages, so that the use of even the rude=t flint implements has 

 become quite intelligible, — that we can hardly wonder at the vast 

 revolution effected in public opinion. Not only is the belief in 

 mau's vast and still unknown antiquity universal among men of 

 science, but it is hardly disputed by any well-informed theologian; 

 and the present generation of science-students must, we should 

 think, be somewhat puzzled to understand, what there was in the 

 earliest discoveries that should have aroused such general oppo- 

 sition and been met with such universal incredulity. 



But the question of the mere " Antiquity of Man" almost 

 sank into insignificance at a very early period of the inquiry, in 

 comparison with the far more mopaentous and more exciting 

 problem of the development of man from some lower animal 

 form, which the theories of Mr. Darwin and of Mr. Herbert 

 Spencer soon showed to be inseparably bound up with it. This 

 has been, and to some extent still is, the subject of fierce con- 

 flict ; but the controversy as to the fact of such development is 

 now almost at an end, since one of the most talented represen- 

 tatives of Catholic theology, and an anatomist of high standing 

 — Professor Mivart — fully adopts it as regards physical structure, 

 reserving his opposition for those parts of the theory, which 

 would deduce man's whole intellectual and moral nature from 

 the same source, and by a similar mode of development. 



Never, perhaps, in the whole history of science or philosophy 

 has so great a revolution in thought and opinion been effected 

 as in the twelve years from 1859 to 1871, the respective dates of 

 publication of Mr. Darwin's " Origin of Species " and " Descent 

 of Man." Up to the commencement of this period the belief in 

 the independent creation or origin of the species of animals and 

 plants, and the very recent appearance of man upon the earth, 

 were, practically, universal. Long before the end of it these two 

 beliefs had utterly disappeared, not only in the scientific world, 

 but almost equally so among the literary and educated classes 

 generally. The belief in the independent origin of man held 

 its ground somewhat longer, but the publication of Mr. Darwin's 

 great work gave even that its death-blow, for hardly anyone 

 capable of judging of the evidence now doubts the derivative 

 nature of man's bodily structure as a whole, although many believe 

 that his mind and even some of his physical characteristics may 

 be due to the action of other forces than have acted in the case 

 of the lower animals. 



We need hardly be surprised, under these circumstances, if 

 there has been a tendency among men of science to pass from 

 one extreme to the other, from a profession (so few years ago) of 

 total ignorance as to the mode of origin of all living things, to a 

 claim to almost complete knowledge, of the whole progress of 

 the universe, from the first speck of living protoplasm up to the 

 highest development of the human intellect. Yet this is really 

 what we have seen in the last sixteen years. Formerly difficulties 

 were exaggerated, and it was asserted that we had not sufficient 

 knowledge to venture on any generalizations on the subject. 

 Now difficulties are set aside, and it is held that our theories are 

 ' Lyell's Antiquity of Man, fourth edition, p. iij. 



SO well established and so far-reaching, that they explain and 

 comprehend all nature. It is not long ago (as I have already 

 reminded you) %va.zQ facts were contemptuously ignored, because 

 they favoured our now popular views ; at the present day it 

 seems to me that facts which oppose them hardly receive due 

 consideration. And as opposition is the best incentive to pro- 

 gress, and it is not well even for the best theories to hi^ve it all 

 their own way, I propose to direct your attention to a few such 

 facts, and to the conclusions that seem fairly deducible from 

 them. 



It is a curious circumstance, that notwithstanding the attention 

 that has been directed to the subject in every part of the world, 

 and the numerous excavations connected with railways and 

 mines which have offered such facilities for geological discovery, 

 no advance whatever has been made for a considerable number 

 of years, in detecting the time or the mode of man's origin. 

 The Palaeolithic flint weapons first discovered in the North of 

 France more than thirty years ago, are still the oldest undisputed 

 proofs of man's existence ; and amid the countless relics of a 

 former world that have been brought to light, no evidence of any 

 one of the links that must have connected man with the lower . 

 animals has yet appeared. 



It is, indeed, well known that negative evidence in geology is 

 of very slender value, and this is, no doubt, generally the case. 

 The circumstances here are, however, peculiar, for many converg- 

 ing lines of evidence show that on the theory of development by 

 the same laws which have determined the development of the 

 lower animals, man must be immensely older than any traces of 

 him yet discovered. As this is a point of great interest we must 

 devote a few moments to its consideration. 



1. The. most important difference between man and such of the 

 lower animals as most nearly approach him, is undoubtedly in 

 the bulk and development of his brain, as indicated by the form 

 and capacity of the cranium. We should therefore anticipate 

 that these earliest races, who were contemporary with the extinct 

 animals and used rude stone weapons, would show a marked 

 deficiency in this respect. Yet the oldest known crania — those 

 of the Engis and Cro-Magnon caves — show no marks of degra- 

 dation. The former does not present so low a type as that ot 

 most existing savages, but is — to use the words of Prof. Huxley 

 — " a fair average human skull, which might have belonged to 

 a philosopher, or might have contained the thoughtless brains of 

 a savage." The latter are still more remarkable, being unusually 

 large and well formed. Dr. Pruner-Bey states that they surpass 

 the average of modern European skulls ^in capacity, while their 

 symmetrical forms, without any trace of prognathism, compares 

 favourably not only with the foremost savage .races, but with 

 many civilised nations of modern times. 



One or two other crania of much lower type, but of less 

 antiquity than this, have been discovered ; but they in no way 

 invalidate the conclusion which so highly developed a form at so 

 early a period implies, viz., that we have as yet made a hardly 

 perceptible step towards the discovery of any earlier stage in the 

 development of man. 



2. This conclusion is supported and enforced by the nature ot 

 many of the works of art found even in the oldest cave-dwellings. 

 The flints are of the old chipped type, but they are formed into 

 a large variety of tools and weapons — such as scrapers, awls, 

 hammers, saws, lances, &c., implying a variety of purposes for 

 which these were used, and a corresponding degree of mental 

 activity and civilisation. Numerous articles of bone have also 

 been found, including well-formed needles, implying that skins 

 were sewn together, and perhaps even textile materials woven 

 into cloth. Still more important are the numerous carvings and 

 drawings representing a variety of animals, including horses, rein- 

 deer, and even a mammoth, executed with considerable skill on 

 bone, reindeer-horns, and mammoth-tusks. These, taken to- 

 gether, indicate a state of civilisation much higher than that of 

 the lowest of our modern savages, while it is quite compatible 

 with a considerable degree of mental advancement, and leads us 

 to believe that; the crania of Engis and Cro-Magnon are not ex- 

 ceptional, but fairly represent the characters of the race. If we 

 further remember that these people lived in Europe under the 

 unfavourable conditions of a sub-Arctic climate, we shall be in- 

 clined to agree with Dr. Daniel Wilson, that it is far easier to 

 produce evidences of deterioration than of progress in instituting 

 a comparison between the contemporaries of the mammoth and 

 later prehistoric races of Europe or savage nations of modern 

 times.* 



3. Yet another important line of evidence as to the extreme 



* "Prehistoric Man," 3rd cd. vol. i. p. 117. 



