ORIGIN OF THE BUSHMEN AND THE ROCK PAINTINGS OF SOUTH AFRICA

First Edition: 102 pages, 22 plates, original brown cloth, a very good copy.

Dictionary of South African Biography, volume V, page 374: Samuel Patton Impey was a medical doctor. He assumed the office of chief medical superintendent of Robben Island in 1891 where he was concerned with the leper colony. His chief contribution was to show that not all cases of leprosy need to be isolated for life. As an amateur artist Impey was interested in the rock art of Africa. In Origin of the Bushmen he expresses the view that the best rock art was neither Bushman nor African in origin but the product of earlier inhabitants.

He studied the cave paintings of France and Spain and after reviewing the contemporary palaeontological literature concludes that, 'all the pictures in South Africa were painted by the Grimaldi men who came to this country about 50,000 years ago. A few of the inferior ones may have been done by the Bushmen, but this has not been proved.' (pages 101-2).