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AND THE 



Delivered November 11th, 1911 , % 



Sir Kay Lankester, 



Cir E. Ray Lankester, K.C.B., D.Sc. (Oxon.), LL.D., F.R.S., 

 ^ F.L.S., etc., the new President of the Bournemouth Natural 

 Science Society, gave his Presidential address at an open meeting 

 of the Society held in the Prince's Hall, Grand Hotel, on 

 Saturday afternoon. Notwithstanding the very wet weather, there 

 was an attendance of nearly 250 people. From 4 to 5 p.m. the 

 Council were " At Home " in the room adjoining the Prince's 

 Hall, where tea was served, and during this hour specimens 

 illustrative of Sir Ray Lankester' s address, which was entitled 

 The Most Ancient Evidences of Man's Existence in Europe," 

 were exhibited. The contributors of valuable collections of flint 

 implements, etc., included Mr. H. Druitt (Christchurch), Mr. E. 

 H. Bellairs, Mr. R. V. Sherring, Mr. Waddington, Mr. J. H. 

 Scott, Mr. A. R. Mangin, Mr. G. H. Burt, Dr. Ord, Mr. 

 Backhouse, Mr. H. le Jeune, and others. Mr. Scott's collection 

 was especially interesting. In addition to a case of flint imple- 

 ments and weapons he showed large coloured pictures (his own 

 work), pourtraying both palaeolithic and neolithic man. The 

 Retiring President (Dr. Dukinfield H. Scott, M.A., LL.D., 

 F.R.S., F.G.S., President of the Linnean Society), presided. 



Sir Ray Lankester, before giving his lecture, said he accepted 

 the Presidency of the Bournemouth Natural Science Society with 

 great pleasure, and chiefly because he had derived very great 

 enjoyment from staying occasionally at Bournemouth. He hoped 

 and believed that a great deal would be done by this Society in the 

 study of the natural history of the neighbourhood in all its 

 different departments, particularly in the very interesting subject 

 of the history of ancient man. It was with great pleasure He 

 succeeded in the Presidency of his old friend Dr. Dukinfield 

 Scott, who was the President of the Linnean Society in London. 



Proceeding to speak of the most ancient evidences of the 

 existence of man in this part of the world, Professor Lankester 

 first explained the term " prehistoric man," and said that pre- 

 historic man lived when writing had not come into existence. The 

 earliest written records of man do not extend beyond 2,000 years 

 in this part of the world, and a little further in the East. Only a few 

 hundred years earlier we get to a period when all that we know 

 about man is due to the remains of ancient buried cities, temples, 



