GEOLOGY. 233 



and manganese associated with the sand and gravel which surrounded 

 the jaw, was removed from it with the utmost facility; there was no 

 infiltration of metallic matter through the walls of the bone, and the 

 section was comparatively fresh-looking. The tooth was in every re- 

 spect remarkably fresh-looking also. The confidence of some of the 

 French members of the Commission was seriously shaken by the charac- 

 ters yielded by the jaw, which, so far as internal evidence went, was 

 wanting in every appearance which commonly distinguishes fossil bones, 

 and especially those found elsewhere in the deposits near Abbeville. 

 Had the conference been closed at Paris, it is not improbable that 

 the result might have been the Scotch verdict of Not proven, but, 

 at the suggestion of the President, the Commission adjourned to Abbe- 

 ville on the 12th, when the coniplexion of the case was at once altered. 

 Here, after taking great care to prevent any deception, they made 

 new excavations, and, at the depth of four metres, in a bed apparently 

 identical with that from which the jaw had been extracted, found many 

 hatchets of flint every way similar to those previously examined, whose 

 authenticity had been doubted by the English savants. Direct testi- 

 mony as to the actual finding and occurrence of the jaw in the gravel- 

 bed was also brought forward ; so that the Commission unanimously 

 agreed as to the following facts : 1st, that the worked flints in the 

 form of hatchets excavated from the gravel were authentic ; 2d, that 

 the jaw was found where it was represented to have been, and that it 

 had not been introduced into the quarry surreptitiously. The majority 

 of the Commission also agreed that the age of the jaw, of the flints, 

 and of the gravel deposit, enclosing them, was substantially the same. 

 Dr. Falconer and Mr. Busk, however, dissented from this, and gave in 

 writing an opinion to this effect, " that the finding of the jaw was au- 

 thentic, but that the characters which it presents, i. e., the internal con- 

 dition of the bone, etc., are irreconcilable with an antiquity equal to 

 that assigned to the deposits at which it was found. From all this, it 

 will be seen that the question of the relative antiquity of the relic is left 

 open to discussion. It is manifest that the evidence was very conflict- 

 ing ; that it is in some respects of an incompatible character ; and that 

 a great deal still remains to be cleared up before the scientific world 

 can arrive at a definite judgment on the case. The subject having 

 subsequently come up before the French Academy, M. de Beaumont, 

 the distinguished and veteran French geologist gave it as his opinion, 

 that the gravel deposit of Moulin-Quignon did not belong to the 

 Quaternary or Diluvian age at all, but that it was a member of 

 the terrains meubles of the actual or modern period, in which he 

 would not be in the least surprised if human bones were found ; add- 

 ing, moreover, that he did not believe in the asserted existence of 

 man as a contemporary of the extinct elephants, rhinoceroses, etc. of 

 the Quaternary period ! M. Milne Edwards, however, at the same 

 time, expressed his opinion most decidedly, that the jaw from Abbe- 

 ville was contemporary with the fossil bones obtained from the same 

 locality. 



THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN. 



The following is an extract of a paper read before the British Asso- 

 ciation at its last meeting, on the above subject, by Mr. J. Crawford, 



20* 



