Attack of the Cave Bears, 1886
Flammarion, Camille (1842-1925). Le monde avant la création de l'homme; origines de la terre, origines de la vie, origines de l'humanité. Paris, 1886.
Camille Flammarion inherited the mantle from Figuier as the most skillful and widely-read popularizer of science in France. His early works dealt with astronomy and the possibility of life on other planets, but in 1886, he followed the lead of Figuier and published a book on prehistoric life. Flammarion was not committed to the idea of human evolution (notice that he titled his book The world before the creation of man), but he did accept that humans lived on earth along with many animals that are now extinct, such as cave bears. And he was perfectly willing to imagine what an encounter between cave-dwelling humans and cave-seeking bears might have looked like. The bears seem to be getting the best of it. For other such images, see the wall panel, “The Age of the Cave Bear.”