PERSISTENCE OF FASHION. 173 



Roman and barbarian domination. Nevertheless, it is 

 not only the permanence of the shape of the horse-shoes 

 which has given rise to this opinion, but also the persist- 

 ence that the people and the artisans of the country have 

 shown in the reproduction of the forms of ordinary articles, 

 instruments, or arms; and to such a degree is this the case, 

 that the hatchets of stone, for example, and those of bronze 

 and iron, are found, after long intervals, to be so similar 

 in form and dimensions that the difference of material 

 could not be taken into account. This evidently proves 

 the influence of habit in the use of utensils of a certain 

 form. The hatchet of bronze remains as small as that 

 of stone ; and it is the same with the weapon made of 

 iron — apparently for the same reason, that the untempered 

 instrument of iron was scarcely better than the one made 

 of bronze. Drawings of Roman antiquities and those of 

 the middle ages represent iron arrow-heads, keys, knives, 

 and designs of vases, which are exactly the same. The 

 same fact is noticed in certain details in architecture ; for 

 instance, the church of Moutiers-Grand-Fal, built in the 

 7th century, we find the same details that may yet be 

 discerned in the theatre of Mandeura. 



' The shoes we look upon as the oldest, show, to com- 

 mence with, that the Celts were already acquainted with 

 siderurgy ; the examination we have made of the ancient 

 forges in the Jura furnishes us with important indications 

 in this respect. (More than 160 siderurgical establish- 

 ments of various epochs have been already discovered, 

 and some of them have furnished antique objects which 

 serve to determine the age of the iron. The furnaces 



