Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, July 1899: Volume LV, No. 3, July 1899Various
Religion
Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, July 1899: Volume LV, No. 3, July 1899
Various
Science -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals
The claim of satisfactory evidence of the extreme antiquity of man in
the valley of the Delaware River has been soberly discussed and
intemperately ridiculed until the public, both scientific and general,
have become tired of hearing the subject mentioned; but this is no
valid reason why the truth should not be ascertained. If man in a
paleolithic stage of culture did exist on the Atlantic seaboard of
North America, then we have a basis upon which to build--a tangible
starting point from which to date a history of human activities on
this continent. As it is, we have but an immense array of facts,
largely unrelated, and the greater portion sadly distorted and
misleading because of the reckless theories set forth with them by
their discoverers, and undoubtedly there never has been, in the whole
range of scientific agitation of a simple question, as great a volume
of reckless assertion, illogical deduction, and disregard of exact
statement. The main question was often wholly lost sight of, and the
author's sole purpose that of demonstrating some one else in error.
Predetermination on the part of many has been fatal to the value of
their field work. Convinced on theoretical grounds, such are
necessarily blinded when on the spot where positive evidence occurs.
He who does not desire the object searched for seldom finds it; and,
later in the day, pride declines to accede to the just demands of
candor--the admission of having reached a wrong conclusion.
There probably would not have been as much attention paid to the
subject of man's growth in culture on this continent had not the
proposition of a sequence from paleolithic to Indian, with an
intervening period, seemed to necessitate a dating back to the Glacial
epoch, which naturally brought geological erudition to bear upon the
question, and since then, most surprisingly, there has been confusion
worse confounded, rather than a flood of light. Much has been written,
but we can not yet be confident which author is most nearly correct;
and the latest report, showing sad evidences of haste, is vitiated by
evident determination to modernize every trace of man, whether the
facts warranted such procedure or not.
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