January 25, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



129 



lished in 1905. Before the latter was 

 out of press there appeared an article by 

 Professor Boule," intended as a severe 

 blow to the genuineness of eoliths. He 

 had been trying for twenty years to stem 

 the rising tide in favor of a pre-paleolithie 

 industry and was beginning to think of in- 

 stituting experiments in the hope of throw- 

 ing light on the origin of eoliths, when M. 

 A. Laville, preparator at the Ecole des 

 Mines, Paris, found an experiment station 

 already in working order and turning out 

 'eoliths' daily by the hundreds. It was a 

 cement factory on the left bank of the 

 Seine, two kilometers southeast of Mantes, 

 near Paris. 



In extracting the chalk from the quarry 

 most of the flint nodules are cast aside. 

 Some, however, pass unnoticed by the work- 

 men and are carried with the chalk to the 

 factory. This, together with a certain 

 amount of clay, is emptied into circular 

 basins (delayeurs) or diluters. These vats 

 have a diameter of about five meters and 

 a depth of 1.4 meters. The water is sup- 

 plied by means of conduits and finally es- 

 capes through lateral sieves, carrying with 

 it the mixture of chalk and clay, both 

 highly pulverized. 



Each circular vat is provided with a 

 horizontal wheel, the spokes of which are 

 armed with cast-iron teeth that reach to 

 within two tenths meter of the bottom, 

 the wheel itself being just above the surface 

 of the mixture. This wheel, with a diam- 

 eter of five meters and making sixteen 

 revolutions a minute, attains a velocity at 

 the circumference of about four meters a 

 second. 



In this whirlpool of moving water, chalk, 

 clay and iron teeth, are also the flint nod- 

 ules that escaped the notice of the quarry- 

 men. These nodules, therefore, receive 

 thousands of knocks, some mutual, some 



""L'Origine des ^olithes,' L'Anthropologie, t. 

 XVI. 



from the iron teeth, until at the end of a 

 period of twenty-nine hours the machineiy 

 is stopped and they are removed. They 

 are then washed and piled up to await their 

 ultimate use as a by-prodiict. It was in 

 one of these piles that M. Laville 's^^ dis- 

 covery was made. Later he visited the 

 place in company with MM. Boule, E. Car- 

 tailhac and H. Obermaier. 



According to Boule, the flints that have 

 passed through the machine have all the 

 characters of the ancient river gravels. 

 Most of them have become rounded pebbles. 

 Many, however, are chipped in a manner 

 to resemble a true artifact. He and his 

 companions were able in a few minutes to 

 make a 'superb collection, including the 

 most characteristic forms of eoliths, ham- 

 mer-stones, scrapers, spoke-shaves,' etc. 

 His article is illustrated by half-tone fig- 

 ures, which, however, are of very little use 

 to the reader. Photographs of eoliths are 

 practically useless ; faithfully executed line 

 drawings are little better; a view of the 

 objects themselves is absolutely necessary 

 before passing judgment on their origin. 



Professor Boule does not pretend that all 

 eoliths have a natural origin more or less 

 analogous to those made by machinery. 

 He does claim 'that it is often impossible 

 to distinguisl* between intentional rudi- 

 mentary chipping and that due to natural 

 causes.' In his opinion, the artificial dy- 

 namics of the cement factory are com- 

 parable in every respect to the dynamic 

 action of a natural torrent. 



Nothing is really gained even by proving 

 the impossibility of distinguishing between 

 man's work and chipping due to natural 

 causes. If the argument is worth anything 

 it will admit of a still wider application 

 because of the fact that it is admittedly 

 impossible to distinguish between certain 

 true eoliths and some artifacts of the pale- 

 olithic and neolithic periods. Things that 



"'Feuille des jeunes naturalistes,' 1905, p. 119. 



