FOSSIL MAN OF MENTONE. (From Popular Science Monthly, October, 1874.)
WAS MAN CREATED?
BY
HENRY A. MOTT, Jr., E.M., Ph.D., Etc.,
Member of the American Chemical Society, Member of the Berlin ChemicalSociety, Member of the New York Academy of Sciences, Member of theAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science, Member of theAmerican Pharmaceutical Association, Fellow of the Geographical Society, Etc., Etc.
Author of the "Chemists' Manual," "Adulteration of Milk," "Artificial Butter,""Testing the Value of Rifles by Firing under Water," Etc., Etc.
NEW YORK:
GRISWOLD & COMPANY,
150 Nassau Street.
1880.
Copyright by
HENRY A. MOTT, Jr.,
1880.
Trow's
Printing and Bookbinding Co.,
205-213 East 12th St.,
NEW YORK.
Electrotyped by Smith & McDougal, 82 Beekman Street, N. Y.
PREFACE.
This work was originally written to be delivered as a lecture; but asits pages continued to multiply, it was suggested to the author bynumerous friends that it ought to be published in book-form; this, atlast, the author concluded to do. This work, therefore, does not claimto be an exhaustive discussion of the various departments of which ittreats; but rather it has been the aim of the author to present the moreinteresting observations in each department in as concise a form aspossible. The author has endeavored to give credit in every instancewhere he has taken advantage of the labors of others. This work is notintended for that class of people who are so absolutely certain of thetruth of their religion and of the immortality that it teaches, thatthey have become unqualified to entertain or even perceive of anyscientific objection; for such people may be likened unto those who,"Seeing, they see, but will not perceive; and hearing, they hear, but will not understand."
This work is written for the man of culture who is seeking fortruth—believing, as does the author, that all truth is God's truth, andtherefore it becomes the duty of every scientific man to accept it;knowing, however, that it will surely modify the popular creeds andmethods of interpretation, its final result can only be to the glory ofGod and to the establishment of a more exalted and purer religion. Allfacts are truths; it consequently follows that all scientific facts aretruths—there is no half-way house—a statement is either a truth or itis not a[Pg vi] truth, according to the law of non-contradiction. If,therefore, we find tabulated amongst scientific facts (or truths) astatement which is not a fact, it is not science; but all statementswhich are facts it naturally follows are truths, and as such must beaccepted, no matter how repulsive they may at first seem to some of ourpoetical imaginings and pet theories. We cannot help but sympathize withthe feelings which prompted President Barnard to write the followinglines, still we will see he was too hasty: "Much as I love truth in theabstract," he says, "I love my hope of immortality more." * * * Hemaintained that it is better to close one's eyes to the evidence