1 86 THE EARLIEST MEN 



discordance of opinion on the subject, from a 

 paper by the veteran archaeologist, G. de Mortillet, 

 whose name has already been mentioned in these 



?ages : " Les avis ont ete on ne peut plus partages. 

 is se sont tout d'abord parques par nationalites. 

 Les Anglais, bien que compatriotes de Darwin, 

 ont fait des grands efforts pour demontrer qu'il 

 ne s'agit que d'un homme, un homme tres in- 

 ferieur, mais deja un veritable homme. Les Alle- 

 mands, au contraire, se sont froidement ingenies 

 a prouver qu'il ne s'agit que d'un singe. Les 

 Franchises ont purement et simplement adopte les 

 determinations du jeune savant. C'etait chose 

 facile pour des compatriotes de Lamarck." 



Apart from, or rather in addition to, these un- 

 solved difficulties, it is not certain whether the 

 geological epoch of the stratum in which the re- 

 mains were found belongs to pliocene or pleisto- 

 cene times, the latter opinion being now, I under- 

 stand, more in favour than it was. It is obvious 

 that however much discussion may rage around 

 these bones, and quite legitimately rage, no stable 

 theory can be reared upon the very unstable 

 footing which is now presented, until some fairly 

 certain conclusion is arrived at with regard to 

 these controverted points. At the same time it 

 must be remembered that in connection with the 

 Neanderthal skull, even in 1901 Schwalbe* was 

 able to tabulate four distinct views, with several 

 sub-divisions in each, as to its character. Yet more 

 recent discoveries have cleared up the difficulties, 



* See p. 148. 



