MOUNDS, FORTIFICATIONS, AND EARTHWORKS. 49 



ing to children of various ages, and have concluded that the effects of pressure 

 upon the bones of the cranium were much more marked in infancy, and that the 

 marks or efl'ccts of pressure disappeared to a certain extent with the advance of 

 years. 



In the graves of several small children, adjacent to the one just described, I 

 found the bones of birds and small annuals. These small stone coffins were dis- 

 covered near the river bank, about twenty feet from the foot of the mound. 



About iifty yards higher up the Cumberland, and evidently connected with the 

 mound previously described, are two smaller mounds, about forty feet in diameter, 

 and about four feet high. These contained stone graves irregularly arranged, but 

 no central earthen vessels, corresponding to that which we have designated as the 

 sacrificial altar. 



The graves which I opened contained no ornaments of any kind. 



Several of the skeletons in tlicse mounds bore unmistakable marks of the 

 ravages of syphilis. In one skeleton, which appeared to manifest in the greatest 

 degree the ravages of this fearful disease, the bones of the cranium, the long 

 bones of the arm (the humerus, ulna, and radius), and the long bones of the thigh 

 and leg (the femur, tibia, and fibida) bore deep erosions, nodes, and marks of severe 

 inflammatory action. Many of the long bones were greatly thickened, presenting 

 a nodulated, eroded, and enlarged appearance. When sections were made, they 

 presented a spongy appearance, with an almost complete obliteration of the me- 

 dullary cavities. The specific gravity of the bones was diminished, and the 

 microscopical characters were in all respects similar to those of undoubted cases of 

 constitutional syphilis, which I have observed in my hospital and civil medical 

 practice. Every competent medical observer to whom these. bones have been 

 submitted, has concurred in the view that syphilis is the only disease which could 

 have produced such profound and universal structural alterations. 



I found a stone hatchet, and numerous arrow- and spear-heads, on the surface 

 around these mounds. While examining the banks of the river in the neighbor- 

 hood of these mounds, I observed strata of ashes and charcoal, pieces of shell and 

 flint, stone implements, and numerous fragments of pottery: the fields around also 

 abound with fragments of pottery, shells, stone implements, and splinters of flint. 

 These remains indicated the occupancy of this locality for a considerable length 

 of time by the aborigines. 



After the most careful examination and comparison of the bones in the mound 

 containing the large earthen vase or central " sacrificial altar,"' I failed to detect 

 any marks of syphilis, whilst the traces of this disease were manifest in the bones 

 of the two smaller mounds, which appear to have been the receptacles of the dead 

 of the common people of the tribe or nation. The presence of syphilitic nodes, 

 and marks of syphilitic ulcerations in these bones, is not only of interest in its 

 medical aspect, but also in its bearing on the probable age of these remains. If 

 this disease was unknown to the aborigines in this portion of America until its 

 introduction by the Spaniards, then we have here evidence that the stone grave race 

 of Tennessee were living at the time of the discovery and exploration of the North 

 American continent by the Spaniards. This view of the question would lead to 



7 March, 1876. 



