LECTURE I. 17 



that the workmen had chipped the flints and imbedded them.* 

 All these objections I did not much care for^ but what vexed 

 me most was, the obstinate refusal to examine the facts, and 

 the use of the expression, '^It is impossible V before people had 

 taken the trouble to ascertain whether it was actually so." 



The distrust with which antiquarian researches are fre- 

 quently received by physicists, may have had its share in the re- 

 ception which gave rise to these jeremiads. But science has no 

 written code, and every fact finds a way for itself if zealously 

 advocated. Boucher de Perthes at length succeeded in inducing 

 some geologists to visit the valley of the Somme, when he showed 

 them the flint implements in situ. These observers created some 

 sensation in the learned societies of Paris and London ; the sub- 

 ject was discussed, and the facts verified, so that there exists no 

 longer any doubt. But in theology, Tubal-Cain still occupies 

 his place as the first worker in metal, and whoever does not 

 believe it is not only now and for ever lost, but is publicly 

 brandedf as an infidel. 



The great antiquity of the domestic animals, and their rela- 

 tions to man, are of particular interest, as they exhibit more 

 than man the influence of nature. As man can act upon them 

 by breeding and aliment according to his will, he is enabled to 

 alter the given forms in a manner which it seems scarcely possible 

 could happen by natural means. If, then, in tracing the changes 

 they have undergone since the most remote times, it could be 

 proved that the various races into which our domestic animals 

 are divided, are either the descendants of one original stock, 

 or the products of intermixture between several original spe- 

 cies, we should no doubt obtain analogies of as much value 

 as many of the conclusions derived directly from the human 

 species. 



You observe then, Grentlemen, that the field of these in- 



* See on this subject the Anthropological Review, vol. i, p. 80. — Editor. 



f It is certainly little to the credit of our " enlightened" age, that men of 

 science are, even in our own country, still exposed to coarse epithets and the 

 imputation of sordid motives, if they advance any doctrines at variance with 

 preconceived ideas. Like the Brahmin who smashed to pieces the unoffend- 

 ing microscope, which showed him living beings in his vegetable food ; so 

 the vehemence of such self-sufficient assailants rises in proportion as the 

 facts advanced cannot be disproved. — Editor. 



