222 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. I., No. 8; 



flector, and, by forming a counter-current, prevents 

 another ridge forming near it, but favors the forma- 

 tion of a parallel ridge at a little distance. The sec- 

 ond ridge thus formed acts in the same way as the 

 first, and so on. After the first ridge is once formed, 

 snow would accumulate on the side of it away from 

 the wind, just as in the case of the tree. 



Jacob Reighard. 



La Porte, Ind., Feb. 27. 



PREHISTORIC MAN. 



Le Pre'historique: Antiquite de I'homme. Par Ga- 

 briel DE MoRTiLLET, professeur d'anthropo- 

 logie prehistorique a I'llloole d'anthropologie de 

 Paris. (Bibliotheque des sciences contemp.) 

 Paris, C. Reinwald, 1883. 642 p. 8°. 



In this latest and most important work of 

 the distinguished conservateur in the prehis- 

 toric department of tlie MusSe des antiquit&s 

 nationales de Saint- Germain, we find exempli- 

 fied in the highest degree both the merits and 

 the faults of his previous writings. His merits 

 consist in simplicity and elegance of stj'le, and 

 a marvellous capacity for the classification and 

 arrangement of the innumerable details of an 

 infant science, with whose minutiae he dis- 

 plaj'S the most intimate acquaintance. This 

 profound knowledge is combined with a verj' 

 cautious and conservative spirit in accepting 

 assumed facts, and is accompanied by an 

 inexhaustible patience in their investigation. 

 But as a counterweight to these high qualifi- 

 cations in a teacher of science, he displays a 

 hastiness in his generalizations which will not 

 wait for the slow and steady growth of knowl- 

 edge, and a dogmatism which insists on forcing 

 upon the world his crude speculations as the 

 accepted truths of science. But what is even 

 more unfortunate (although we can readilj' 

 account for the existence of such a feeling in a 

 man of science in France at the present time) , 

 his resistance to the reactionary spirit of cleri- 

 calism seems to have resulted in a state of 

 active and bitter hostilitj* to all religion what- 

 soever. His attitude towards the bigoted and 

 ignorant opposition of religious men to the 

 overwhelming evidence of the antiquity of 

 man can hardly be considered as ' dowered 

 with the hate of hate, the scorn of scorn.' He 

 more than repaj'S them in their own coin ; as 

 when he tells us that "the quaternary man 

 lived in peace, entirelj' unprovided with reli- 

 gious ideas," or speaks of Cuvier as "the il- 

 lustrious professor of the museum, creator of 

 a new science, but doubled with a mediocre 

 counsellor of state, posing as the defender of 

 what then, as now, was called the moral order." 

 So we cannot help feeling that there must be 

 a little personal pique to account for his sneer 



at ' certain great academies ' which have not 

 yet granted their letters of naturalization to 

 ' palethnologieal studies ; ' and we can scarce- 

 ly believe him to be serious in his complaint 

 that these new doctrines have not yet found 

 their way into the elementary text-books. 



Upon the disputed points in prehistoric ar- 

 cheology he utters no uncertain sound. The 

 first part of the work, embracing fifteen entire 

 chapters, is devoted to 'The tertiary man,' 

 although such a title seems to be somewhat 

 inconsistent with his conclusion, that, " during 

 the tertiary times, there existed a being intelli- 

 gent enough to produce fire, and to fabricate 

 instruments of stone ; but this being was not 

 yet a man." He was ' the precursor of man,' 

 — an ancestral form intermediate between him 

 and the anthropoid apes of the present day. 

 For this remote ancestor of ours, whose or- 

 ganic remains, he admits, have not as yet 

 been met with, he has provided the long and 

 learned appellation of the Anthropopithecus ; 

 and this aclaievement he modestly compares to 

 Leverrier's discover}^ of a planet, or to the re- 

 covery b.y the philologists of the Aryans from 

 the dibris of their language. He even goes so 

 far as to assure us that there were at least 

 three species of this long-named creature, the 

 first of which he calls A. Bourgeoisii, named 

 from the late Abb6 Bourgeois of Thenay, near 

 Tours in central France, who has been most 

 indefatigable in his search for traces of man 

 in tertiary times. Then comes A. Ramesii, 

 so called from M. Rames, who made a similar 

 discovery near Aurillac in Auvergne. Finally 

 there is A. Ribeiroii. whose appellative is de- 

 rived from Col. Ribeiro, director of the geo- 

 logical bureau of Portugal, who believes that 

 he has found traces of the existence of man, at 

 that remote epoch, in the vallej' of the Tagus. 



It is hardly necessary to state, that such 

 very advanced Darwinianism as this does not 

 represent the opinion and belief of the great 

 bodj' of students of prehistoric archeology the 

 world o^'er. The writer does not know of six 

 men of science in Europe who accept ' the pre- 

 cursor of man.' The evidence that has sufficed 

 to produce in the author's mind the conviction 

 of his existence must be admitted to be very 

 slight, although this does not appear to disturb 

 him greatly. -To the objection that the discov- 

 ery in a certain localitj-, of objects that seem 

 to bear traces of human workmanship, has 

 not been confirmed in other places, he replies, 

 that this is " an objection without foundation, 

 since a fact can only be observed at one spot. 

 It is like denying an eclipse because it is onlj^ 

 visible upon a small portion of the globe." 



