286 ACCOUNT OF HUMAN BONES 



tries which form the bottom of actual seas, where all his re- 

 mains are buried. 



The homo diluvii testis et theoscopos of Scheuchzer, and 

 the mountain of similar debris described by Spallanzani as 

 existing in Cerigo, have been proved not to belong to our 

 race, and of the jaw dug up among the fossil bones at Cron- 

 stadt, Mr C. remarks that no sufficient notes or precautions 

 were taken at the time of its discovery, so to its pretensions 

 also there is a non liquet. 



Granting that no human extraneous fossil exists, it is ne- 

 vertheless admitted that such remains have been found, which, 

 without having undergone any process of lapidification, are of 

 an extremely ancient date, and the more ancient they are, 

 the more interesting do they appear. Professor Blumenbach, 

 for example, has a skull from an ancient Roman tomb, and 

 it is in a good state of preservation. The Egyptian mum- 

 mies of a very remote age have their osseous structure pre- 

 served in a perfect integrity, and there is in these mummies 

 a circumstance which goes to shew that no limit could be 

 properly assigned to the duration of bony organization. I 

 allude to the facts recently published in relation to the dissec- 

 tion of those relics : in M. Passalqua's mummy, the dia- 

 phragm still retained its suppleness, though from a papyrus 

 which was deciphered by M. Champollion, the subject was 

 found to be daughter to an officer of the Temple of Isis at 

 Thebes. In Dr Granville's dissection, the stomach, kidneys 

 and ovaria were still discernible. Now if the fibrous and 

 membranous structures are capable of being preserved for 

 more than twenty centuries, why may we not suppose the 

 osseous portions of the frame to endure for forty or sixty 

 under favourable circumstances. 



The present specimens are particularly interesting, inas- 

 much as they belong to the American continent, and as ad- 

 ding another link to that chain of testimony concerning the 

 early occupation of this soil, of which the remains are so few 

 and unsatisfactory, but of which another link or strong analogue 

 exists in the Island of Guadaloupe. in a good measure neglect- 



