1903 - 4 .] Dr Munro on Man in the Palaeolithic Period. 125 
necessary to hunt the animals in primeval forests. Skin-coats, 
dug-outs and stone weapons are now lineally represented by 
woven fabrics, Atlantic liners and Long Toms. 
Were it possible for one of our Palaeolithic ancestors to sit in 
judgment on the comparative merits of the two civilisations, I 
fancy his verdict would be something like the following : “You 
have utilised the forces of nature to a marvellous extent, and 
thereby greatly increased the means of subsistence to your fellow- 
creatures ; but, at the same time, you have facilitated the physical 
degeneracy of your race by multiplying the sources of human 
disease and misery. The invention of money has facilitated the 
accumulation and transmission of riches to a few ; but it has 
impoverished the many, and supplied incentives to fraud, theft, and 
all manner of crime. Patriarchal establishments have given place 
to social organisations, governed by laws founded on moral senti- 
ments and ethics ; but their by-products are extreme luxury and 
extreme poverty. Hence, to support the weak and the unfortunate 
is no longer a matter of charity, but a legal and moral obligation. 
Notwithstanding the size of your asylums, hospitals and alms- 
houses, they are always full and always on the increase. Your 
legislators are selected by the voice of the majority : what if that 
majority be steeped in superstition, prejudice and ignorance? 
You have formulated various systems of religion, but whether 
founded on the principles of fetichism, polytheism or monotheism, 
they are still more or less permeated with contradictory or contro- 
verted creeds and dogmas. Natural sport, as practised with 
weapons of modern precision, can only be characterised as legalised 
killing of helpless creatures. To shoot pigeons suddenly liberated 
from a box at a measured distance, or overfed pheasants, even 
after they have managed to take wing, or semi-domesticated deer, 
especially when driven to the muzzle of a rifle — all, of course, 
within sight of a luncheon basket — is a poor substitute for the 
excitement and field incidents of the chase in Palaeolithic times. 
With no better weapons than a spear, or lance tipped with a 
pointed flint, and a small dagger of bone or horn, we had, not 
infrequently, to encounter in mortal combat the mammoth, 
rhinoceros, cave-bear, or some other fierce and hungry animal, which, 
like ourselves, was prowling in quest of a morning meal. Such 
