hrdliCka] skeletal EEMAINS OF EARLY MAN 337 



Argentina, it follows that 'Hlie place of origin and the center of dis- 

 persion of man was the southern half of South America. . . . This 

 conclusion is in perfect accordance with all the other facts that relate 

 to man and in line with his physical characteristics. . . . The 

 very abundance of those human remains indicates that one is at their 

 point of origin and in the region of their greatest differentiation." ^ 



In the Imes quoted below, Ameghino mentions the discovery of 

 another ancient species of man. In a recent letter to the writer he 

 stated that there has just come to light, in the central pampa, another 

 "Diprothomo^^ and the reference in the publication at hand applies in 

 all probability to the same specimen, but it is now placed as "another 

 intermediary type between Diprothomo and Homo." This makes 

 already the sixth type of "hominiens," profoundly cUstinct from one 

 another and from Homo sapiens, from the province of Buenos Aires, 

 and "these six species of hominiens, cantoned in the same country, 

 prove with all the eloquence of facts \\dthout appeal that here exists 

 the center of origin, diversification, and dispersion of the human 

 genus." 



The remainder of the paper is given to reassertions concerning the 

 antiquity of the various objects other than skeletal remains which 

 have been reported from Argentina as signaUng the presence of early 

 man and which Mochi regards in general as of doubtful character. 

 "The material of this kind which has been accumulated at the Museo 

 Nacional of Buenos Aires is so considerable and contains pieces that 

 are so characteristic, that only the blind could fail to recognize therein 

 the hand of man — and the blind are to be pitied, nothing more." 

 And there are announced new objects of this nature, from the Enter- 

 rian and Superior Eocene formations; also "eoliths," found from the 

 Eocene onward. These vestiges, as well as incised, cut, scraped, 

 and spht animal bones, and objects showing the effects of fire, of 

 similar antiquity, occur in the same strata with osseous debris of the 

 most ancient precursors of the Jiominiens ( = Anthropos, etc.), "to 

 whom their first industrial vestiges can also be attributed." 



"It is seen," Professor Ameghino continues, "that it does not 

 matter from which point of view the case is considered; be it from 

 that of the antiquity and abundance of fossil human bones; be it from 

 that of the variety and great dift'erentiation of fossil hominiens, or from 

 that of the presence of skeletal vestiges of man's forerunners and of 

 the precursors of the Jiominiens, which are totally absent from 

 Europe; or be it finally from that of ancient industrial traces — 

 South America possesses more ancient, more numerous, and more con- 

 vincing documents than those that have been furnished up to this 

 time by the old continent." 



• " L'abondance meme de ces debris, indique qu'on est sur leur point d'origine et dans la regionde-leur plus 

 grand developpement." 



21535° —Bull. 52—12 22 



