176 HUMAN FOSSILS. in 



" ' The incipient formation of dendritic deposits, which 

 were formerly regarded as a sign of a truly fossil condi- 

 tion, is interesting. It has even been supposed that in 

 diluvial deposits the presence of dendrites might be re- 

 garded as affording a certain mark of distinction between 

 bones mixed with the diluvium at a somewhat later period 

 and the true diluvial relics, to which alone it was supposed 

 that these deposits were confined. But I have long been 

 convinced that neither can the absence of dendrites be 

 regarded as indicative of recent age, nor their presence 

 as sufficient to establish the great antiquity of the objects 

 upon which they occur. I have myself noticed upon 

 paper, which could scarcely be more than a year old, den- 

 dritic deposits, which could not be distinguished from 

 those on fossil bones. Thus I possess a dog's skull from 

 the Roman colony of the neighbouring Heddersheim, 

 Castrum Eadrianum, which is in no way distinguishable 

 from the fossil bones from the Frankish caves; it presents 

 the same colour, and adheres to the tongue just as they 

 do; so that this character also, which, at a former meet- 

 ing of German naturalists at Bonn, gave rise to amusing 

 scenes between Buckland and Schmerling, is no longer of 

 any value. In disputed cases, therefore, the condition of 

 the bone can scarcely afford the means for determining 

 with certainty whether it be fossil, that is to say, whether it 

 belong to geological antiquity or to the historical period.' 



" As we cannot now look upon the primitive world as 

 representing a wholly different condition of things, from 

 which no transition exists to the organic life of the present 

 time, the designation of fossil, as applied to (/ Ixjne, has 

 no longer the sense it conveyed in the time of Cuvier. 

 Sufficient grounds exist for the assumption that man co- 

 existed with the animals found in the diluvium; and many 

 a barbarous race may, before all historical time, have dis- 

 appeared, together with the animals of the ancient world, 

 whilst the races whose organization is improved have con- 



