A HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



tion of the transmutation of species. The question had 

 implications far beyond the bounds of paleontology, of 

 course. The main evidence yet presented had been 

 drawn from quite other fields, but by common consent 

 the record in the rocks might furnish a crucial test of 

 the truth or falsity of the hypothesis. " He who re- 

 jects this view of the imperfections of the geological 

 record," said Darwin, "will rightly reject the whole 

 theory." 



With something more than mere scientific zeal, there- 

 fore, paleontologists turned anew to the records in the 

 rocks, to inquire what evidence in proof or refutation 

 might be found in unread pages of the "great stone 

 book." And, as might have been expected, many 

 minds being thus prepared to receive new evidence, 

 such evidence was not long withheld. 



FOSSIL MAN 



Indeed, at the moment of Darwin's writing a new 

 and very instructive chapter of the geologic record was 

 being presented to the public a chapter which for the 

 first time brought man into the story. In 1859 Dr. 

 Falconer, the distinguished British paleontologist, 

 made a visit to Abbeville, in the valley of the Somme, 

 incited by reports that for a decade before had been 

 sent out from there by M. Boucher de Perthes. These 

 reports had to do with the alleged finding of flint imple- 

 ments, clearly the work of man, in undisturbed gravel- 

 beds, in the midst of fossil remains of the mammoth 

 and other extinct animals. What Falconer saw there 

 and what came of his visit may best be told in his own 

 words: 



