An introduction to the study of social evolution; the prehistoric period . it is that the bone remains of prehistoric manare most frequently found in undisturbed boulder-claysand drift, or imbedded in the floor of some cave of greatantiquity. Investigation and discovery have brought tolight a considerable number of bone remains of prehis-toric man. We shall, therefore, examine this evidenceto ascertain how far we may expect to reconstruct theintermediate steps in the descent of man. In the first place how are we able to tell certainlywhether any bone remains which we find are reminis-
An introduction to the study of social evolution; the prehistoric period . it is that the bone remains of prehistoric manare most frequently found in undisturbed boulder-claysand drift, or imbedded in the floor of some cave of greatantiquity. Investigation and discovery have brought tolight a considerable number of bone remains of prehis-toric man. We shall, therefore, examine this evidenceto ascertain how far we may expect to reconstruct theintermediate steps in the descent of man. In the first place how are we able to tell certainlywhether any bone remains which we find are reminis-cent of prehistoric man? Is it not possible that theyare simply the remains of some relatively modern patho-logical individual and not of some lower type of man?The associated circumstances are of utmost the particular part of a skull which we have discovered THE OEIGIN AND xVNTIQUITY OF MAN 51 was found imbedded many feet below the surface inundisturbed beds of sand or gravel and geologists tell usthe age of the sand bed, the age of the remains must be at. From r inaut^ Dai~ts m and aiti^r Iiar\v Figure 13. An infant, three weeks old, supporting itsown weight for over two minutes. The attitude ofthe lower limbs, feet, and toes is strikingly simian. least as old as the sand bed. Geologists are able to esti-mate with approximate accuracy the age of certain de-posits of sand or gravel by determining the rate at whichsimilar beds are being- formed at the present day throughthe agency of rivers or glaciers. In this way we may becertain of the age of these remains within a negligibleerror. It is to be remembered that geologists measure 52 SOCIAL EVOLUTION time in thousands and millions of years.^^ Geologistsdivide the time of the earths development from an un-inhabitable sphere to its present state, into several greatepochs in accordance with the type of rock formationexisting. The Paleozoic or Primary and the Mesozoicor Secondary, cover the vast epochs when only the m
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectsociolo, bookyear1913
