impossible to pursue the subject here; for a full discussion
reference may be made to Professor Bonney's presidential address to
the British Association at Sheffield in 1910.

It will be seen, therefore, that the "Antiquity of Man" opens up a
wide field of speculation into a variety of difficult and obscure
though interesting subjects. In the light of modern research it
would be an easy task to pile up a mountain of criticism on points
of detail. But, though easy, it would be a thankless task. It is
scarcely too much to say that the dominant impression of most
readers after perusing this book will be one of astonishment and
admiration at the insight and breadth of view displayed by the
author. When it was written the subject was a particularly thorny
one to handle, and it undoubtedly required much courage to tackle
the origin and development of the human race from a purely critical
and scientific standpoint. It must be admitted on all hands that
the result was eminently successful, taking into account the
paucity of the available material, and the "Antiquity of Man" must
ever remain one of the classics of prehistoric archaeology.

This edition of the "Antiquity of Man" has been undertaken in order
to place before the public in an easily accessible form one of the
best known works of the great geologist Sir Charles Lyell; the book
had an immense influence in its own day, and it still remains one
of the best general accounts of an increasingly important branch of
knowledge.

In order to avoid a multiplicity of notes and thus to save space,
the nomenclature has been to a certain extent modernised: a new
general table of strata has been inserted in the first chapter, in