Elephant pipes and inscribed tablets in the Museum of the Academy of natural sciences, Daveport, Iowa / by Charles E. Putnam.

  • Charles Edwin Putnam
Date:
1885
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Elephant pipes and inscribed tablets in the Museum of the Academy of natural sciences, Daveport, Iowa / by Charles E. Putnam. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    -65 American Antiquarian Society, at Worcester, beginning the category with the oldest in point of time; the Smithsonian Institution; the Pea- body Museum of American Ethnology, in Cambridge; the American Museum of Natural History, Central Park; and the well-known Daven- port Academy of Sciences — all prominent, with great devotion to this branch of science. Though these institutions are presided over by able scholars, yet there is certainly a great lack of uniformity of methods. Also, there seems to be desirable a purer spirit of science exercised in the disposi- tion of material, and a more wholesome comity of intercourse between individuals and institutions devoted to this subject. Though our notes more largely appertain to other features, yet we are constrained to regret the attitude of some archaeologists towards the proceedings of the Davenport Academy. The reputation of this institution is too well established to be lightly arraigned, even if it be a rnonotreme, or a toothed bird, or a loxolophodon that its council offers for consideration in the shape of a carved stone pipe. By all the amenities are we not bound to give respectful attention? As Falstaff says: “But, then, think what a man is.” Are not the members of the Davenport Academy gentlemen and scholars? Should not the title of their published transactions be an unciuestioned guaranty of high motives, the contents always, of course, subject to clear scrutiny and fair revision, as in all other like instances? Dr. Willis De Hass, Washington, D. C. (In a comnuinication bearing date March 31, 1SS5, Dr. De Hass thus refers to the attack of Mr. Henshaw upon the Davenport Academy and its published ‘Vindication”: ‘‘1 will here say that the unjust criticism of which you complain can do no injury to the tablets and pipes. Criticism, to have weig-ht, must be made by competent authority. The persons of whom you complain are not archieoloji^ists, and their opinions on such subjects are not reg'arded as possess- ing^ weig^ht by competent archieolog-ists.” During- the past winter Dr. De Hass favored the Academy with a lecture upon “Prehistoric Archa;olog-y — Proifress of Discovery,” in which he referred at some length to the relics in ciuestion. Cominj^ from so competent and distinai'uished an archajolojfist, his investig-ations and conclusions must carry with them great weight, and hence we have extracted this portion of his lecture.] Having said thus much in commendation of the Academy and its excellent work, it may be expected that I shall say something of the charges so industriously circulated, affecting the value of certain dis- coveries. I can add but little to the masterly “Vindication” made by President Putnam. His admirable rejoinder is full, thorough, lucid, and convincing. The charges and insinuations made by captious crit- ics are unjust and unfounded. I have carefully examined the relics specially objected to, and have no hesitation in pronouncing them ecpially entitled to credit given to the collection generally. The ele- phant iii[)es, which have elicited so much criticism, I consider as gen- uine as the most undoubted specimens in the museum. Subjected to the sharpest tests, they pass successfully. 'Fhe principal objection to the j)ipes is that they are anomalous — that no similar forms occur in other collections, and that the mastodon did not exist contemporane- ously with man. I could present abundant evidence in contradiction