25 
Mr. E. Clodd thanked the Council of the Institute for having invited 
him to be present, and though he differed much from Mr. Whitley’s 
conclusions, he also cordially thanked him for investigating this subject 
so thoroughly, for what was really wanted was, that the most arrant 
scepticism should be directed to every specimen which was reputed to be 
the handiwork of man. It was impossible to discuss such a question 
satisfactorily except in the presence of experts. It was, he thought, to be 
legretted that the discover es made in other caves had been received with 
silent scepticism on the part of the Royal and other Societies, while the 
discoveries made in the Brixham Cavern had had an undue measure of 
impoitance given to them. So far as he was able to judge from comparing 
the Brixham Cave specimens exhibited in Somerset House, and the flints 
in the Christie Collection, he had no hesitation in pronouncing these so- 
called knives— but that was too strong a term for them— these flint flakes, 
to be the handiwork of man. After making every allowance for changes 
and differences of temperature and for the vast number of flint flakes 
found in certain localities, there Avas abundant evidence left to show the 
existence of a stone period in the past, which extended even down to the 
present time. No one could look at the carefully arranged collection of 
Col. Lane Fox in the Bethnal Green Museum, or at the collection in the 
Christie Museum, without feeling that there was strong evidence of a stone 
age before an age of metal, when man was content, in a state of savagery, 
to make use of the handiest materials he could find for his weapons. If 
Brixham Cavern were gone altogether, there would still be sufficient 
evidence to be drawn from the remarkable flints found in the valley of the 
Somme,- in the Thames Valley, and elsewhere; and that evidence no 
leory of attrition and no theory of change of temperature would upset. 
Professor Tennant pointed out that silicate in any form would never 
break in a straight line, but always conchoidally. " If two flints were 
struck against each other, many flint flakes would be produced. Not very 
many years ago, before the percussion cap came into use, extensive flint 
manufactories were kept up for our old muskets. With regard to the 
flints that had come from the diamond fields in South Africa, the greater 
part of the diamonds were not found upon the surface, but were dug up 
from a depth of 200 feet, and at that depth there were no flints. Out of 
£15,000,000 worth of diamonds that had been found, not £1,000 worth 
had been found upon the surface. He could not reconcile his own opinion 
with the idea that all the flints which had been found were of human 
manufacture, but he certainly thought that some of them were. 
Mr. Whitley, in replying upon the discussion, said.— I will, in the 
Vo T V VIIL > Page 51, where Mr. James Parker deals with the 
W Urge ? that , f ™ m the P^ition of the flints of the Somme 
Valle}, and the geological changes that have taken place there, it may not 
t0 cl f m , the vei N gy eat age that Professor Lyell and 
some otheis have done, for their formation by man. — Ed. 
