Note 2 — Front matter

I am well aware that the reality of Dr. Koch's discovery has been doubted by some, although it is difficult to perceive why he should have made those statements, if not true, at a time when the antiquity of man was not yet discussed, either in Europe or here, and he, therefore, could expect nothing but contradiction, public opinion being totally unprepared for such revelations. Not being a scientific palaeontologist, he certainly made some mistakes in putting together the bones of the animals exhumed by him; but these failings, in my opinion, have no bearing on his observations relative to the co-existence of man with extinct animals in North America. Only a short time ago some remarks tending to depreciate Dr. Koch's account were made by Dr. Schmidt, in an article on the antiquity of man in America, published in vol. v, of the Archiv für Anthropologie. I may state here that I was personally acquainted with Dr. Koch, whom I saw repeatedly at the meetings of the Academy of Science of Saint Louis.