SouthalVs Recent Origin of Man. 39 



II.— The Eeoent Origin of Man, as Illustrated by Geology 

 AND THE Modern Science of Pre-Historic Archaeology. 

 By James 0. Southall. (Philadelphia : Lippincott & Co. ; 

 London : Triibner & Co.) 



WHILST the first rank must be accorded to original observers 

 who add to the world's stock of knowledge, the second place 

 must be assigned to those useful workers who weigh and place the 

 stores brought in by the former. The latter merit belongs to Mr. 

 Southall. He does riot appear to be a votary of science, but an inde- 

 fatigable and able collector of statistics. He avows himself, how- 

 ever, to be an advocate, and whilst he is comprehensive and fair in 

 his collection of instances, he is acute in turning them to account in 

 accordance with his theory, which is that of the recent origin of man 

 on the earth. 



The author affirms that history, commencing about 5000 years 

 ago, opens with full-fledged civilization. That in the East there 

 was no stone age, stone implements there being no older than metal 

 ones ; that the people of the stone age in Western Europe are off- 

 shoots from the East, and contemporaneous with its civilization. 



The ninth chapter brings us to the critical portion of this portly 

 volume. He discusses the megalithic evidence in harmony with the 

 arguments of Mr. Eergusson, and sets down all the great stone monu- 

 ments as recent, too recent to have any bearing on the question in 

 hand. The eleventh chapter deals with the lake-dwellings, and 

 claims them for all ages, and on the strength of some admixture of 

 metal and pottery he urges that they are contemporaneous with 

 civilization and the use of metal in other quarters at the same time. 



The twelfth chaj)ter argues that the Scandinavian refuse-heaps are 

 not older than the lake-dwellings. Eude implements found in them 

 prove only that they are the relics of rude fishermen and peasants. 

 Iron and bronze not being known around the Baltic until after the 

 Christian era, the absence of these metals proves scarcely anything. 



The thirteenth and fourteenth chapters exhaust the caves. They 

 are, like the preceding " finds," described in great detail and with 

 fairness. Attempt is made to show a gradation backwards in occu- 

 pation from modern days to the earliest without interval. Erom the 

 instances in which the remains of the Mammoth epoch are mixed 

 with those of reindeer, in the South of Erance, the contemporaneity 

 of these animals with the former is argued. The Belgian evidence 

 is also adduced in support of this. It is inferred that the men first 

 inhabiting the caves were not onlj hunters, but manufacturers, potters, 

 traders, possessing sundry furnishings of civilization. 



"The sum of the matter is, that we find in the ancient cave- 

 dwellers a race of men in almost precisely the condition of the 

 modern Esquimaux ; and there is a considerable probability that the 

 Arctic races of Europe and America are their descendants. 



" It was the first race that reached Western Europe from Western 

 Asia, and the Celts subsequently pushed them further North." 



Then we come to the discussion of Solutre, — an important, perhaps 

 a crucial case. Here bones of the elephant are found together with 



