Page:Palæolithic Man and Terramara Settlements in Europe.djvu/155

Rh development and great antiquity was first promulgated, together with some illustrations of the nature and sources of the evidence on which the novel doctrine was founded. The avidity with which it was received is shown by the fact that, within a year of the publication of the Antiquity of Man, no less than three editions were called for. This success was no doubt partly due to the marvellous ability of the author in generalising and popularising his facts, but to a large degree it was the result of the extreme tension on the philosophic mind which, by this time, had become so much unhinged as to be on the qui vive for some such exposé. The result was a complete victory for scientific truth and its methods of research. Henceforth a new impetus was given to the study of the science of anthropology by the conviction that the meanest traces of man's early career were actually more important materials for a history of humanity than all the treasures that had been collected from the ruins of the greatest empires of the historic world. The wide morphological gap between man and the other animals still living suggested a correspondingly long period for man's development, in the course of which it was expected that some evidence of the stages through which he had passed might have become stereotyped in the geological records. Where to find and how to interpret such materials were now the chief problems at issue ; and to their solution the savants of all countries braced themselves with an energy that augured final success. Societies were founded in London, Paris, and other centres of intellectuality, for the express purpose of following up the new-found trail of humanity ; and to popularise and disseminate their doctrines numerous periodicals and special works were published. One periodical may be specially mentioned, viz., Les Matériaux pour l'histoire primitive et naturelle de l'homme- which, since it was started by G. de Mortillet, had been the means of giving wide publicity to the new doctrines. In the year 1865, at a special meeting of the Italian Society of Natural Science held at Spezzia, was founded the "Congres International d'Anthropologie et d'Archéologie préhistoriques," the first meeting of which was held in the following year at Neuchâtel. Subsequent meetings have been held at Paris (1867), London (Norwich, 1868),