A. Ilrdlidha — Early Man in America. 553 



which was not regarded by one or more of the local scientists 

 as geologically ancient. Yet along the coast and in other 

 places, on or near the surface of the ground, lay many bones 

 of domestic and other animals of living species showing plainly 

 various phases of " fossilization." Really no bones from bur- 

 ials or inchisions in the Pampean deposits were met with 

 that were not more or less mineralized, which is easily 

 explainable 'by the high percentage of calcareous and other 

 mineral contents favoring "fossilization" that are held by the 

 formation. 



The results of lack of experience in anthropological matters 

 manifested itself especially and painfully in the case of the 

 " Diprothomo." This form is represented by a frontal bone 

 with a portion of the parietals. The fragment was described, 

 not in the position which it would occupy in a normally poised 

 skull, but in that which it assumed when laid on the table. 

 This error was responsible for the creation of a genus of human 

 ancestors. 



The descriptions of various specimens extended to and made 

 much use of minute details, which are known to be of little or 

 no biological significance. In the cases of the Diprothomo 

 and Tetraprothomo, as published by Ameghino, there are page 

 upon page of minutiae through which even a trained anatomist 

 wades with difficulty and which only obscure the true char- 

 acter of the specimens. The Monte Hermoso atlas, which in 

 every respect is well within the range of variation of the 

 same bone in the prehistoric and probably even in the historic 

 American Indian, was at the same time and largely by such 

 minutiae being made a part of the Tetraprothomo by Ameghino, 

 and given as a representative of a Tertiary species of Ameri- 

 can man by Lehman n-Nitsche. 



As to the part that theory played in this connection, it is 

 sufficient to point to the system of human descent and migra- 

 tion constructed on the basis of the various reports assumed to 

 indicate the presence of human man in South America by 

 Ameghino. He not only derived the whole human family 

 from certain little primitive forms in South America and 

 peopled that continent with hitherto unsuspected species of 

 man and genera of precursors, but he also considered that all 

 these species and genera became extinct before South America 

 was peopled by the Indians. The latter, he assumed, came 

 from the emigrants who originally left the southern continent 

 and spread over Africa, Asia, and North America, finally 

 reaching again the southern part of the continent. 



The above examples could be much enlarged upon, but this 

 is hardly necessary in view of the facility with which the 

 detailed report on " Earl} 7 Man in South America " can be con- 

 sulted. Here it is only, just to the other South American 



