250 DR. C. B. PLOWRIGHT ON NEOLITHIC MAN IN WEST NORFOLK. 
I. 
NEOLITHIC MAN IN WEST NORFOLK. 
By Charles B. Plowright, M.D., F.L.S. 
Read 28th April, 1891. 
'When one picks up an artificial flint-flake it is sure to arouse 
feelings of interest — Who made it ? How it came there ? What 
object was in the mind of its maker when it was struck off? 
— and the like questions arise in one’s mind. Such an object 
carries us back to remote antiquity. When we contemplate the 
centuries which have elapsed since our ancestors, living in a state 
of barbarism, had to utilise the crude products of nature for their 
daily wants, we are very apt to fall into a reverie. Although 
neolithic man, as compared with his palieolithic progenitors, is but 
a “ thing of yesterday,” yet, when we reflect upon our mode of 
living, as contrasted with his, we can but marvel at the changes 
which have taken place. Even if neolithic man was for a 
considerable period contemporaneous with the more fortunate 
possessors of bronze weapons, yet even then the gulf between 
him and ourselves is stupendous. In the absence of written 
record we can at best but surmise how he existed : how his daily 
wants were supplied; and how he contrived to hold his own in the 
struggle for existence, not only with the larger animals, but also 
with the vicissitudes of climate. 
To many persons the term “ flint implement ” recalls a mahogany 
cabinet, filled with choice specimens of highly finished celts, 
arrow-heads, knives, and scrapers, such as collectors are only too 
proud to exhibit. It falls to the lot of but few to be able to 
amass such collections as these ; there is, however, much good 
