64 Bibliographical Notices. 



Antiquity of Man, as deduced from the Discovery of a Human 

 Skeleton during the Excavations of the East- and West-India 

 Dock-extensions at Tilbury, North Bank of the Thames. By Sir 

 Richard Owen, K.C.B., F.K.S., &c. 8vo. 32 pages; with 

 5 plates. Yan Voorst : London, 1884. 



Heeein the author describes in detail some of the bones of the 

 skeleton found, in 1883, in excavating the new docks at Tilbury, at 

 a depth of 34| feet below the level of the marsh, and 41 feet below 

 Trinity highwater-mark. In the frontispiece a diagram gives the 

 following section of the ground, beginning at the top : — 



ft. 



1. Glay 604 



2. Mud 10-76 



ti. Mud and peat 1'70 



4. Peat 1-08 



5. Mud 3-86 



6. Peat 358 



7. Mud 1-76 



8. Mud and peat 324 



9. Sand and decayed wood 0"82 



10. Sand 1*71 



Level at which the remains were 



found. 



11. Sand 1076 



12. Ballast-gravel. 



The author finds the bones to have belonged to an old — perhaps 

 very old — robust man, of low intelligence. All the areas of muscular 

 attachment on the bones indicate a very strong and active muscular 

 system ; the forehead is low and narrow, with prominent frontal 

 sinuses, and " the eminences and depressions indicative of cerebral 

 convolutions are few and feebly indicated." The lower jaw is 

 senile, the alveolar process of the molars absorbed, and the remain- 

 ing teeth show signs of local decay. The ridged and rough muscular 

 regions on the skull, the lower jaw, a humerus, and a femur are 

 especially noticed ; and, in particular, the rough, obliquely promi- 

 nent upper portion of the gluteal ridge on the left thigh-bone (not 

 nearly so much developed on the fellow femur, exposed in the 

 Mammalian Saloon of the British Museum), which prominence the 

 author likens to the " third trochanter " " in most perissodactyle 

 quadrupeds." The tibias are not described in detail ; but they 

 appear to be platycnemic, as seen in the glass case in the Museum, 

 though not quite so sharp-edged as in some of the other prehistoric 

 skeletons already known. 



The author does not enter into the bibliographic history of the 

 remains of prehistoric man : he only alludes to the remains found in 

 the cave at Bruniquel, and to M. Quatrefages's summary on fossil 

 man and savages ; and he makes some reference to the doubtful 

 existence of Tertiary man. 



