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TEE PRESENT STATE OF TEE EVIDENCE BEARING 
UPON TEE QUESTION OF TEE ANTIQUITY OF 
MAN. By T. McK. Hughes, M.A., Woodwardian Pro- 
fessor of Geology, Cambridge. 
HE subject before us is one of very great interest. It 
refers to times so far removed from our own that the 
wild interest of an unexplored land belongs to it, and yet so 
near that we can entertain the possibility and indulge the hope 
of exploration ; and when we know that man was there, our 
interest grows still greater, and we look at it as on a wild 
region into which a tribe had wandered and got lost, of whom 
we think we might get traces yet if we could follow. 
The subject embraces a wide field of inquiry, and may be 
approached from many sides. Philologists are questioned 
about the original oneness of language, and then, on the 
assumption of a common origin, are asked to estimate how 
Note to Professor Hughes’ Paper. — For some years the Institute 
has encouraged research bearing upon the question of the “ Antiquity of 
Man,” more especially because the extreme views incautiously advanced 
by many, tended alike to injure the cause of Science and those higher 
interests with which this Society has also identified itself. 
Professor Hughes’ very high standing as a Geologist, and his painstaking 
accuracy, and caution, alike fitted him to take up the subject, and the 
following pages were written by him after a further examination of the 
reported evidences of the antiquity of man. It will be seen that Professor 
Hughes holds that the earliest known evidences of man’s antiquity are 
amongst the Post-glacial Gravels, the period of which is almost the latest in 
Geological time ; those therefore who have claimed for man an extreme 
antiquity will find his origin brought forward through well-nigh incalculable 
ages. — The Institute is much indebted to Professor Hughes, and also to 
those who have kindly discussed the subject, or sent in the after-communi- 
cations, each of which is left to rest upon its own merits. 
In the present state of the controversy we can only discern that cautious, 
accurate inquiry, and an avoidance of imperfect generalizations and hasty 
conclusions, will promote the cause of Truth. — Ed. 
