Men of the Old Stone Age: Their Environment, Life, and Art

Abstract

PROGRESS in the study of prehistoric man has been so remarkable during the tast few years that the demand for a rapid succession of more or less popular treatises on the subject is not surprising. Most of the original memoirs are in technical language in serials that are not generally accessible, and it is natural that critical summaries by those who have taken part in such research should be widely welcomed. The curiosity of the intelligent public, however, is so eager for satisfaction in many matters which are still beyond the pale of scientific knowledge that there is ever a temptation to make a book successful by pandering to this taste. Probabilities and possibilities which have been judiciously considered in scientific memoirs, and rightly used as tentative hypotheses, run the risk of being quoted as established facts; while unique, isolated discoveries tend to be treated as if they were sufficient for the absolute determination of their mutual relationships and could be used for definite conclusions.

Men of the Old Stone Age: Their Environment, Life, and Art.

By Prof. H. F. Osborn. Second edition. Pp. xxvi + 545. (London: G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., 1916.) Price 21s. net.