Page:Prehistoric Britain.djvu/49

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'ANTIQUITY OF MAN'
41

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 popularize 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 'Congrès 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), Copenhagen (1869), Bologna (1871), Brussels (1872), Stockholm (1874), Buda-Pesth (1876), Lisbon (1880), Paris (1889), Moscow (1892), Paris (1900), Monaco (1906), and Geneva (1912). The published proceedings of these Congresses contain the most complete records of the progress of the science, especially as regards Europe. After the cloud of scepticism which enveloped its early and evolutionary stages had been swept aside, anthropology found a footing at the British Association for the Advancement of Science, at first as a sectional department, but since 1884 it be-