know that Europe was already inhabited by men in 

 the days of the mammoth and of the diluvial ice pe- 

 riod. The very successful prehistorical researches en- 

 deavoured to find the most ancient vestiges of mankind. 

 In many places there have been found either remains of a 

 man's skeleton in a fossil state, or other proofs of their 

 existence, implements, traces of their culture, &c. It is 

 not quite possible to fix exactly the age of mankind. 

 From the most recent inferences of Penck, the begin- 

 ning of the diluvial period is admitted to have taken 

 place about 500,000 years ago. The diluvial man 

 was acquainted with the use of fire, employed tools 

 made artificially of bones or flint. We observe cases 

 of burial of the dead that show a commencement of 

 ethical and religious life. In the second half of the 

 diluvial epoch these men gave practical proofs of 

 their interest in art. On the ceilings and walls of 

 their favourite dwelling places, the rocky caverns, 

 they drew and painted pictures of animals. In the first 

 half of the diluvial period we find rather ancient 

 remains of a race of men to-day entirely extinct, the so- 

 called Neandertal race. Towards the end of the ice 

 period there seem to have been in Europe only one 

 single race of men who carried on the culture of the 

 time, and who resembled as to the form of their bodies 

 the present living race. These men survived the fast 

 disappearing great cold period. In their time al- 

 ready the mammoth, the most characteristic animal of 

 the European ice period, seems to have vanished more 

 and more. The reindeer was as far down as the south of 

 France, the wild animal chiefly hunted. 



The idea, that the man of the present day, like 

 all other living beings of creation, has originated by a 

 harmonious development, is made clear by the skulls 

 and bones that have been found, the casts of which are 

 to be seen in the museum, No. 13. 



We distinguish the following stages : 



Age: 

 I. Stage. Most primitive pace of | Beginning of the ice 



man. Remains of the ancient I period and first middle 



primitive man : ) period 



