310 FAUNA ANTIQUA SIVALENSIS. 



sudden stride tlie close and severe scrutiny wliicli marks the 

 ordinaiy progress of the science. We push on, takitig it for 

 granted that the steps which we have leaj)ed over are seciu-e, 

 and that all is sound in our wake. But a lesson of wisdom, 

 sooner or later, is certain to overtake us. Occasions arise 

 which awaken us to a sense of insecurity, our confidence is 

 shaken, and we are compelled to cast a searching glance 

 behind us. The inexorable law which tracks every hurried 

 and unsound result of human labour, material or intellectual, 

 exacts reparation. What we have built up in haste we are 

 compelled to throw down and reconstruct with care and 

 attention. When assured that all is made right, we start 

 again on our onward progress to achieve renewed success, 

 sobered by the lesson of the past, and provided with safe- 

 guards for the future. 



The same kind of retrospect which from time to time we 

 cast on the material facts, justice deiaands of us to apply 

 also to the history of discovery in the science. Facts which 

 are now fused in the common mass may have exercised a 

 powerful influence when first brought to light. The impartial 

 historian will regard them in this Hght, and not merely as 

 they now appear. He will also be scrupulously carefiil to 

 award to the first observers fairly what is their due ; for, 

 apart from the abstract consideration of justice, the only 

 guarantee which we have that our own labotirs shall be 

 respected in the fature is the fairness with which we our- 

 selves deal with the labours of our contemporaries and of 

 those who have gone before us. 



These trite reflections are called up on the present occa- 

 sion by what has lately come to light in regard to the 

 discovery of fossil Quadrumana, and by the investigations 

 now in progress respecting the early appearance of the human 

 race upon the surface of the globe. Having had a htmible 

 share in both, and historical injustice having been, as I 

 consider, done to me, though perhaps unwittingly, as regards 

 the date of the former, I think the time appropriate for indi- 

 cating an historical correction concerning the exact deter- 

 mination of supposed fossil Quadrumana. 



When Cuvier died, monkeys and man were alike unknovm. 

 in the fossil state, and the negative evidence furnished the 

 great French anatomist with an argument, which he wielded 

 with powerful efi'ect and to the general acceptance of man- 

 kind, in favour of the very modern appearance of both upon 

 the earth. But in 1836 and 1837 the successive discovery 

 of fossil Quadrumana in miocene strata in India and Europe 

 excited much interest, and communicated a hopeful forecast 

 to the aspirations of Palaeontology. Now, the subject is so 



