26 
first place, say a few words on wliat has been said in opposition to the 
opinions which I have brought before the meeting this evening. I heard 
with very great pleasure— because I am simply desirous of ascertaining 
the actual truth— that one gentleman on my left rose to take the opposite 
view to that which I hold, but the meeting will have observed that not one 
word was said in contradiction of the facts contained in my papei . 1 lit, 
facts there set down remain untouched and unanswered. That gentle- 
man said that I had made an attack on the honesty of gentlemen who 
are opposed to me, in reference to the question of these so-called im- 
plements. Now, I should exceedingly regret it if I had done any such 
thing ; but I have looked into my paper again and I find that I have in 
the plainest language simply stated the facts, and made no imputations 
whatever. The facts may be, as they are, strong ones, but I could not 
have expressed them in more moderate language. One other speaker— 
Mr. Clodd— is the author of a clever book entitled “ The Childhood of 
the World,” in which he has relied wholly and entirely on the Brixham 
Cavern evidence. Not a word was written by him, not a piece of evidence 
was adduced by him, from any other cavern. He said not a single word 
about the gravel-beds of the Somme, of which he has spoken so strongly 
to-night, to show that they bear testimony to the great antiquity of man. 
Now, I have been to the Somme three times to examine those beds, and I 
hold a contrary opinion to his, and probably Mr. Clodd has not given that 
personal attention to these gravel-beds which I have done. . In the Lang- 
ham Review there is a paper by Mr. Clodd on “ Lhe Antiquity of Man in 
Western Europe,” and in that paper Mr. Clodd has abandoned the whole 
of the Brixham evidence— he has not said one word about it. That 
magazine was issued in March— this month— and in it the whole of the 
evidence of the antiquity of man is drawn from other sources. I do not 
think it is quite fair when, after great care and investigation, I have 
produced the evidence and examined the whole literature of a special 
subject, that an opponent should not say one word as to the truth of my 
evidence, but bring forward evidence which I may not have had an 
opportunity of investigating. However, I have been to the Somme three 
times, and I have seen the whole of M. Boucher de Perthes’ collection, and 
that at Salisbury, and I have been to Pressigny le Grand and to Belgium, 
and I would not take up the position which I have taken up without having 
carefully and thoroughly convinced myself that I am right in this matter.* 
Mr. Whitley writes as follows : — <£ The Wood wardian Professor, Mi. 
M'Kenny Hughes, read before the Cambridge Philosophical Society (m 
November, 187(1) an important paper ‘ on The Evidence of Man s Ex- 
istence before the Glacial Period,’ and showed the weakness of that 
evidence in many cases, including the Settle Caves, and the Brandon scare. 
This paper will be published in the ‘Proceedings’ of that society. Nature, 
for November 30th, 187G, contains a paragraph, showing that the drawings 
on bone— said to have been found in tlieThayngcn cave near Schail hausen— 
