The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1880-12-15


were roaming in the forests, skulking in
the caverns, and swimming in the rivers
of the continent, it was too readily as
sumed that his European antiquity
stretches back into pre-glacial times, or
at least reached the figure of tens of
thousands of years. This conclusion is
unsustained by the historical, arch@olog-
ical, and geological evidence. The opin-
ion seems to me wild and fanatical. . 4.
They have no ground for the reckless as
sumption that the records of the Stone
Age date back a hundred thousand years.
-. The latest pile dwellings come down
to the sixth century. :. The cotempora-
neousness Of man with the extinct NAM
moth is no more proof of mans high an
tlquity than the coexistence of the dodo
and the Dutch painter is proof that the
Dutch painter lived hundred thousand
years ago. &. think we must admit
that the greatest events which separate
us from the age of the Stone Folk do not
necessitate many thousands of years for
their contamination. We do not dis
cover valid grounds for assuming him
man removed by distance exceeding
six to ten thousand years PIP. 421-44l.
The conclusions of Prof Dawkins are.
therefore, according to Prof. Winchell,
all to be rejected.
But notwithstanding these conserva-
tive views under this head, Prof Win
chell believes in Pre-adamite races of men,
and expresses the opinion that the first
race which appeared on the earth was
the negro race, and that this event pro-
badly occurred as early as the Miocene
period, or the middle of the Tertiary era
And here Prof Dawkins comes for
ward, and says this was impossible He
passes the evidence for tertiary man in
review, and rejects it all as worthless or
unsatisfactory, and further afirms, as we
have intimated, that, paleontologieally,
the thing was nearly impossible. Prof
Dawkins is M A., F. R. S., F. G. S., F.
S. A, and professor of geology and pal
eontology in Owens College, Manchester,
England
"Was man an inhabitant of Europe in
tie Miocene age2" he inquiries. did
he wander through the evergreen forests
and hunt the deer antelopes, and hogs,
the Hipparions, Mastodous, and Demo
there's, then so numerous?' He goes
into the subject, and concludes Wien
all this is taken into account, it will b,
seen how improbable, nay how impossi
bic, it is that man, as we know him now
the highest and most specialized of al
created forms, should have had place
in the Miocene world. The evolution OF
the world, as recorded in the rocks, had
at this time advanced as far as, but no
farther than, the Quadrunooao, and it
seems to me not improbable that some of
the extinct higher apes may have pos
sessed qualities not now found in living
members of their order" (p Co.,
Mr.. Dawkins then inquiries, Did man
appear in Europe in the Pliocene period ?
Here is his answer: {" AS the evidence
stands at present the geological record is
silent as to mans appearance in Europe
in the Pliocene age. 1t is very improba-
BILE that he will ever be proved to have
lived in this quarter of the world at that
remote time, since of all the European
mammalia then alive only one has sur
vived to our own days" p. 90.
The conclusions Of Prof Winchell are,
therefore, according to Prof Dawkins,
all to be rejected.
Now it is true that Prof. Winchell
agrees that no trace of tertiary man has
been found IN Europe or anywhere else
)unless Prof. Whitney's Calavras skull
be an exception), but the accomplished
Michigan professor, following Milne Ed
wards, Peschel, and others, argues that
The continent which tertiary man inhab-
ted is now LoSt-sunk under the waves
Of the Indian Ocean Nothing has been
fooend-neither the continent nor the
Pre-adamites; but Prof Winchell says
5he hypothesis is necessary in order to