14 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



otlier are characterized by a spirit of thrift and a desire for 

 equitable and low taxes. 



Such, then, is the situation which confronts any one who pro- 

 poses to discuss broadly the great subject of taxation with a view 

 of effecting reforms in the existing system. It exacts, on the 

 part of him that is to attempt it with any prospect of success, a 

 familiarity with theory, not merely gained from the study of 

 books, but theory based on extensive practical administration. 

 It requires, on the part of both the teacher and the taught, what 

 Herbert Spencer has declared to be the conditions of success in 

 all departments of scientific research, namely, " an honest recep- 

 tivity and willingness to abandon all preconceived notions, how- 

 ever cherished, if they be found to contradict the truth." 



4 



PRIMIGENIAL SKELETONS, THE FLOOD, AND THE 



GLACIAL PERIOD. 



By H. p. FITZGERALD MAREIOTT. 

 PART I. THE PALEOLITHIC SKELETONS OF MENTONE. 



IN the rocks near Mentone that go by the name of Les Bocliers 

 Rouges * there was discovered, on the 12th of January, 1894, 

 another human skeleton. It is that of a man about six feet two 

 inches in height, but, owing to the head having been crushed, ac- 

 curate measurement is difficult. M. Adolphe Mdgret,t however, 

 has calculated the height of the living man to have been 1*984 me- 

 tre. This he does by multiplying the length of the phalangine I 

 of the medial finger, 0'031 metre, by 64, a method that in every 

 case proves successful. The first account of this find, in the local 

 Anglo-American, mentioned two skeletons, and in spite of it be- 

 ing now affirmed that only one was discovered, we rather suspect 

 that there was truth in the first statement, especially as the leg 

 bones of another are admitted to have been found beside it ; and 

 all the more, knowing as we do how the skeleton of 1872 was ac- 

 companied by two others, the existence of which was kept a secret, 

 as they were too imperfect for the scientific discoverer to describe 

 conscientiously at the time. This skeleton of 1894, as we must 

 hereafter call it, lay on its back, inclining to the left side, the body 

 slightly bent, the legs stretched and crossed below the knee, the 

 right arm bent and with the hand lying open over the left breast. 



* In dialect their name is Baousse-Rousse, the Italian for which is Baize Rosse. 



f Etude de Mensurations sur rHomme prehistorique, Nice, 1894. 



\ La phalangine is probably the smallest and last of the phalanges of the medius. 



