8 THE NEANDERTHAL SKULL. 



It has been thought by some high 

 authorities that in consequence of the 

 express-train system of education in the 

 present day, many novel theories are 

 broached solely for the purpose of 

 criticism, then laid aside and forgotten 

 as if they had never existed. I am 

 not prepared to say whether this is cor- 

 rect or not, but it may be safely assumed 

 that many such theories pass through the 

 three stages of startling announcement, 

 hasty acceptance, and silent retraction; 

 since it must be confessed that if your 

 Professors of Science are often highly 

 original in their speculative theories, they 

 are often very loose in attempting to 

 verify them. To mention a case in point. 

 One of the most distinguished scientists of 

 the 19th century, Professor Tyndall, has 

 truly observed that " without verification, a 

 theoretic conception is a mere figment of 

 the intellect."* Although this remark is 

 made " On Prayer as a Form of Physical 

 Energy," it has been applied with no little 



* See Tyndall's Fragments of Science, p. 469. 



