36 THE HUMAN SPECIES 



flintstones in West Flanders a whole series having the appear- 

 ance of bsing hewn. Homes and Szombathy have pointed 

 out that both the bulbe de percussion and the retouche could 

 have arisen in a perfectly natural way. The only absolutely 

 reliable proofs of an apparently hewn stone having been artifici- 

 ally produced lie in the character of the outline and the re- 

 gularity of the retouche; Rutot's flintstones fail in both these 

 requirements. This is severe criticism, but any one who, 

 like the writer, has had frequent opportunity of examining 

 whole series of alleged Tertiary stone implements will not think 

 it unjust, for the bone carvings are extraordinarily vague and 

 deceptive. In Ranke's opinion the incisions may equally well 

 have been caused by natural agencies, such as sharp-edged 

 stones, the teeth of rodents (porcupine, beaver), the swordfish, 

 etc. Moreover, Homes is entirely justified in emphasising the 

 fact that up to the present no traces of encampments or dwell- 

 ing places from the Tertiary Period have been found in Europe. 



To sum up : Tertiary man probably existed in Europe but 

 we have as yet no definite proof thereof. 



The stature of the Tertiary man must remain a matter of 

 conjecture, since we do not know whether it is possible to assign 

 the proportions of the South American Tertiary man to the 

 alleged European. The effect of civilisation on the human body 

 being partly injurious, weakening and stunting, partly beneficial 

 and favourable to growth, man's ancestors, as Branco : remarks, 

 may have been taller, or shorter, than the average man of the 

 present day. If we accept as a fact that giants lived in Europe 

 in the Tertiary Period, it must be remembered that no traces of 

 any giant descendants of theirs have ever been found in any 

 part of the world. Kollmann assumes that Tertiary man was 

 a pigmy, and regards as his descendants the neolithic pigmies 

 of South-East France and Switzerland, and the still existing 

 pigmy tribes of Africa, Asia, Europe and America. This, how- 

 ever, is but another hypothesis, and one which can only find 

 support in the low stature of the Pampas skeletons of Tertiary 

 man in South America. 



Admitting the existence of Tertiary man, where shall we 

 seek his birthplace and primitive home ? The recent discovery 



1 Branco, loc. fit., p. 113. 



