220 
by the Boyal Society, which showed how slender was the 
evidence in support of the knives, an attempt has been made to 
supplement and strengthen it by the bold assertion that “ the 
whole of the flints” (discovered in the cave) present “signs of 
human workmanship or use upon them,” and this is insistea on 
by Mr. Evans with every variation of language six times in a 
single page.* Here, then, we have a definite issue to try, for 
whatever may be the form or rudeness of the implements, if 
they bear conclusive evidence of use by man, then they un- 
doubtedly prove his contemporaneous existence. 
In considering this new aspect of the case, it is important, 
first, to observe that the evidence of wear on implements now 
used by man is so plain and obvious that it cannot be mistaken ; 
— a worn-out kitchen knife, a ground-down carpenter’s axe, or 
a chisel used up to a stump — are all familiar things ; and the 
same kind of worn and wasted evidence is stamped on the real 
flint tools of the Neolithic age. After a detailed review of the 
stone tools of Scandinavia, Nilsson says, “These facts show 
that the above-mentioned stone objects have been employed as 
tools in every-day use, and that they have, while being so 
used, become worn, resharpened, and broken, and that the 
fragments have been made into other kinds of tools/’ t Ana 
again he says, <f We therefore learn that these axes have 
become blunted, have been reground and worn, until they were 
entirely worn out.” % _ „ 
And still more closely to the point to be proved ; some tew 
flint flakes have been found which have been rubbed down 
smooth to a chisel-like edge at one end ; and the Neolithic axes 
or chisels called celts are worn by rubbing or use to a working 
edge, and many are wasted in length, like a well-used plough- 
share : and this known evidence of use on authentic flint tools is 
so obvious that it cannot be mistaken. 
But when we come to examine the nature of the evidence ot 
use, now first put forward by Mr. Evans, we are taken aback 
to find that it is altogether of a different character, and that 
not a single flint from the Brixham Cavern bears the same 
indubitable marks of use as are found on the recognized stone 
tools of the Neolithic age. It is not even pretended that any 
such evidence of use is found on the Cavern flakes; but Mr. 
Evans proceeds by way of experiment to scrape the delicate 
edge of a flint flake over some hard substance such as bone, and 
the edge becomes broken and chipped, § and applying this 
result to the splinters of flint in Brixham Cavern, he says : 
* Ancient Stone Implements, p. 471. + The Stone Age, p. 90. 
J The Stone Age, p. 66. § Ancient Stone Implements, p. 458. 
