IIG SATURDAY LIX'TUEES. 



those sileiit chronologieal iveords of the devouring- appetite 

 and j)rogressive luxury of primeval man, had been explored 

 and described by AVorstiae and Thomsen. Tn Switzerland, 

 the unusual subsidence of the waters of the lakes had 

 brought to light the relics of the lake-dwellers; and, not 

 less memorable, on the 24th November, 1S59, there appeared 

 in London a modest looking volume which has probably 

 exerted more influence on scientific workers than any one 

 book ever i)ublished — its title was : The Origin of Species, 

 by Charles Darwin. 



Prof. Huxley, speaking of this occurrence twenty years 

 later, said : 



" It was only subsequent to the publiqation of the ideas 

 contained in that book that one of the most powerful in- 

 struments for the advance of anthropological knowledge— 

 namely, the Anthroi)ological Society of Paris— was found- 

 ed ; afterward, the Anthropological Institute of this country 

 and the great Anthropological Society of Berlin came 

 into existence, until it may be said fhat, now, there is 

 not a branch of science which is represented by a larger or 

 more active body of w^orkers than the science of anthropol- 

 ogy. But the whole of these workers are engaged, more or 

 less intentionally, in providing the data for attacking the 

 ultimate great problem, whether the ideas which Darwin has 

 put forward, in regard to the animal world, are capable of 

 being applied in the same sense, and to the same extent, to 

 man. That question, I need not say, is not answered." 



It may seem almost sui)erfiuous to explain the allusion to 

 the lake-dwellings and the kitchen-middens, but some of 

 the younger members of this audience may be glad to learn 

 what is meant by those terms. 



In Switzerland the winters of ISolJ and 1854 proved to be 

 so dry and cold that the usual spring freshets in the rivers 

 were ^vanting, and the level of tlie water in the great lakes 

 was lower than had ever before been recorded. Accident 

 led to the discovery of some ancient piles, and other evi- 

 dences of man's work. The result of long-continued inves- 

 tigations may be briefly stated, as follows : The Pfahlbauten, 

 or pile-works of Switzerland, were villages built on piles 



