The antiquity of man in North America.

  • Wallace, Alfred Russel, 1823-1913.
Date:
1887
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The antiquity of man in North America. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    1887 067 :!’U.. L /^r ... i?k z?. •-; /' / THE ANTlQlS'itf^F^MAN IN V- NORTH AMERICA. Over a considerable portion of the northern hemisphere the remains of man, or his works, have been found in association with bones of i the extinct mammalia which characterised the Griacial epoch, and no ' evidence has been obtained that man at that time differed more from modern savages than they do among themselves. The facts which prove this antiquity were, when first put forth, doubted, neglected, or violently opposed, and it is now admitted that such oppo- sition was due to prejudice alone, and in every case led to the rejec- tion of important scientific truths. Yet after nearly thirty years’ experience we find that an exactly similar prejudice prevails, even among geologists, against all evidence which carries man one little step further back into pre-Grlacial or Pliocene times, although if there is any truth whatever in the doctrine of evolution as applied to man, and if we are not to adopt the exploded idea that the Palaeolithic men were specially created just when the flood of ice was passing away, they must have had ancestors who 'must have existed in the Pliocene period, if not earlier. Is it then so improbable that some trace of man should be discovered at this period that each particle of evidence as it arises must be attacked with all the weapons of doubt, accusation and ridicule, which for so many years crushed down the truth with regard to Palaeolithic man ? One would think, as Jeremy Bentham said of another matter, that it was ‘ wicked or else unwise ’ to accept any evidence for facts which are yet so in- herently probable that the entire absence of evidence for their exist- ence ought to be felt to be the greatest stumbling-block. No better illustration of this curious prejudice can be given than the way in which some recent discoveries of stone implements in deposits of considerable antiquity in India are dealt with. These implements are of quartzite, and are of undoubtedly human workman- ship. They were found in the Lower Laterite formation, which is said to have undergone great denudation and to be undoubtedly very ancient . Old stone circles of a great but unknown antiquity ; are formed of it. It is also stated that the distinction between the Tertiary and post-Tertiary is very difficult in India, and the age of z z 2