204 [August, 1842. 



10 the usual chemical tests, found them in a very great degree deprived of 

 animal matter an additional evidence of their antiquity. 



Dr. Morton also exhibited parts of four other skeletons, obtained also in 

 Yucatan, by Mr. Benjamin A. Norman, during a recent sojourn in that coun- 

 try. They were found in mounds near the sea-coast; but on a closer examin- 

 ation, it was ascertained by that gentleman that these mounds had been 

 pyramids of mason work, which, by gradual disintegration, and subsequent 

 deposits of vegetable matter, had been reduced to the low, conical, or mound- 

 like lorm. One of these skeletons is that of a man of perhaps five and twenty 

 years ol age; the bones, which are chiefly those of the extremities, are large, 

 and indicate a person of full stature. The few remaining cranial bones are' 

 large and massive, which remark also applies to both maxilla?, in which the 

 teeth are remarkably perfect. The os calcis and other bones of the foot are 

 of delicate proportions. Parts of a second skeleton from the same mound 

 are smaller, but so few, and so much broken, as to prevent any certain indi- 

 cations of age or sex. 



Of the two remaining skeletons, only a few fragments of long bones and 

 others of the hands and feet remain. These are much larger than those 

 already described, and have probably pertained to men of large stature. No 

 remains of cranial bones were found among them. These fragments were 

 not tested for the animal matter they may contain; but, judging from their 

 extreme disintegration, it must have almost wholly disappeared. 



Mr. Gliddon remarked, on the authority of Mr. Stephens, 

 that an examination of the sepulchre, and of the mode in 

 which these remains had been interred, totally disproved 

 any idea of their being of Egyptian origin or character. 



BUSINESS BY SPECIAL RESOLUTION. 



On motion of Dr. Morton, Resolved, That the Catalogue 

 accompanying Mr. P. A. Browne's donation of West Indian 

 plants, &c, be bound, and deposited in the Library of the 

 Academy. 



