312 Reviews—Prof. Boyd-Dawkins—Early Man in Britain. 
quest.” A view which is the natural result of belief in the theory 
of evolution. 
In the Miocene! period living genera of Mammals begin to appear. 
And in the chapter devoted to this subject the author refers to the 
difficulty of distinguishing between Eocene and Miocene. “The 
only clue to their geological date (he says) is the stage of evolution 
presented by the mammalia, the more general having obviously 
preceded in point of time the more special forms ”—a doctrine set 
forth at length in a paper he recently communicated to the Geological 
Society of London, on “The Classification of the Tertiary Period by 
means of the Mammalia.” Although such a classification would be 
undoubtedly useful, we cannot help thinking it would be most 
inconvenient and undesirable to allow it to alter our present classifi- 
cation, which should be based on the evidence of physical conditions 
and changes, rather than on the occurrence of any particular fossil 
forms. 
He regards the Hempstead Beds as Miocene, for they yield re- 
mains of a hog-like animal (Hyopotamus bovinus), found in Lower 
Miocene strata on the Continent. By most authorities they have 
been regarded as EHocene; but Professor Judd now places them as 
Oligocene. The physical changes of this period are dwelt upon, 
and the author introduces a section through Beinn More, the volcano 
of Mull, from a paper by Prof. Judd, which seems to us as out of 
place as the ideal picture from ‘“‘ Nature” by Mr. Starkie Gardner, 
before mentioned. 
In the Miocene period we come upon the first supposed traces of 
Man—evidence resting on certain “ splinters of flint” found in the 
Mid- Miocene strata at Thenay, and on a notched fragment of a rib 
of Halitherium from Pouancé, in France. These data appear to 
Prof. Dawkins insufficient to establish a Miocene man. If the flints 
were splintered artificially, he suggests that this was done by one 
of the higher apes then living in France rather than by man. He 
remarks that “The evolution of the animal kingdom, recorded in 
the rocks, had at this time advanced as far as, but no further than, 
the Quadrumana, and it seems to me not improbable that some of 
the extinct higher apes may have possessed qualities not now found 
in living members of their order.” Indeed, Prof. Dawkins considers 
it highly improbable that man was then living in any part of the 
world, for “no living species of land mammal has been met with 
in the Meiocene fauna.” 
In the Pliocene strata at least one living species of mammal 
has been found, “therefore the improbability of man having lived 
in Europe at that time is proportionally lessened.” In his chapter 
on this formation Professor Dawkins refers to the evidence of Ice- 
action in Pliocene times, to the Flora, and to the Mammalia in 
general; he discusses the development of antlers in deer, and 
_ | Prof. Dawkins, following John Phillips, spells the words as Meiocene, Pleiocene ; 
it seems to us better to follow Lyell (the originator of the terms), and use Miocene 
and Phocene—a mode of spelling generally adopted. For the benefit of students 
uniformity is desirable, 
