PRATT AND FARQUH ARSON ANTIQUITIES OF ILLINOIS. 361 



We also have the pleasure of preseutiug an exhaustive report upon 

 the crauia, by Dr. R. J. Farquharsou, a member of the Daveuport Acad- 

 emy of Natural Sciences, including measurements, analyses, and care- 

 ful comparison with skulls of other races of men, and with other well- 

 authenticated mound-builders' skulls. 



We also inclose Mr. A. S. Tiffany's description of the locality, on Eock 

 Island,where he discovered the skull which is represented by photograph 



:n^o. 8. 



A STUDY OF SKULLS AND LONG BONES FROM MOUNDS NEAR ALBANY, ILL. 



By R. J. Farquharson, M. D., of Davenport, Iowa. 



This lot of bones was obtained from mounds near Albany, III., by the 

 Davenport Academy of Sciences. The topography, «S:;c., of these 

 mounds is given in the preceding paper by Mr. Pratt, who conducted 

 the explorations. 



In the first place, an attempt was made by a rude analysis to arrive 

 a"; the probable age of these bones. A small part of the middle por- 

 tion of one of the long bones was incinerated, with the following re- 

 sult : Weight before incineration, thirty-eight grains; afterward, thirty 

 grains ; loss, eight grains ; equal to 20 per cent. 



Mineral ma,tter. Animal matter. 



Fresh bone, (dry,) Berzelius 67 33 



Mound-builder's bone 79 21 



12 12 



Now, as the lightness, or diminished specific gravity of these bones, 

 precludes the idea of an increase of the mineral matter, and also as we 

 know that, in certain conditions of soil, an actual loss of mineral matter 

 takes place, we may safely infer that a considerable loss of animal mat- 

 ter has here taken i^lace; a loss even greater than what the above fig- 

 ures would seem to indicate. 



But, unfortunately, these data will not afford even an approximate 

 estimate as to the time since these bones were buried. 



" In an old Roman frontal bone dug up from Pompeii, Dr. Davy found 

 35.5 animal parts, and G4.5 earthy ; and in the tooth of the mammoth 

 30.5 animal, and G9.5 earthy." (Todd and Bowman's Anatomy, vol. 1, p. 

 105.) 



Orfila, in his Exhumations Juridiques, (vol. 1, p. 350,) states that bones 

 buried in the cemetery of the Innocents, Paris, over six hundred years, 

 yielded, in analysis, 27 percent, of gelatin and 10 per cent, of fat ; while 

 fresh ones yielded only 30 per cent, of gelatin, showing only a slight 

 alteration. On the other hand, bones exhumed from the church-yard of 

 Ste. Genevieve, Paris, after a burial of over seven hundred years, 

 showed marked alteration, which he describes as follows : Very brittle, 



