164 HUMAN FOSSILS. in 



all those Belgian caves, which contained an abun- 

 dance of fossil bones. 



A short letter from M. Geoffroy St. Hilaire, 

 published in the " Comptes Rendus " of the Acad- 

 emy of Sciences of Paris, for July 2nd, 1838, speaks 

 of a visit (and apparently a very hasty one) paid 

 to the collection of Professor " Schermidt " (which 

 is presumably a misprint for Schmerling) at Liege. 

 The writer briefly criticises the drawings which 

 illustrate Schmerling's work, and affirms that the 

 " human cranium is a little longer than it is repre- 

 sented " in Schmerling's figure. The only other 

 remark worth quoting is this: — 



" The aspect of the human bones differs little from 

 that of the cave bones, with which we are familiar, and 

 of which there is a considerable collection in the same 

 place. With respect to their special forms, compared with 

 those of the varieties of recent human crania, few certain 

 conclusions can be put forward; for much greater dif- 

 ferences exist between the different specimens of well- 

 characterized varieties, than between the fossil cranium 

 of Liege and that of one of those varieties selected as a 

 term of comparison." 



Geoffroy St. Hilaire's remarks are, it will be 

 observed, little but an echo of the philosophic 

 doubts of the describer and discoverer of the re- 

 mains. As to the critique upon Schmerling's fig- 

 ures, I find that the side view given by the latter 

 is really about -^-ths of an inch shorter than the 

 original, and that the front view is diminished to 



