THE HUMAN SPECIES. 107 



HUMAN OSSUARIES, 

 WITH BONES OF EXTINCT ANIMALS. 



Now, the inference which we desire at present to draw 

 from the foregoing facts, is solely, that the extinction 

 of several lost species of the so called fossil mammalia 

 was not entire, nor anterior to the first appearance of 

 man on earth, nor even to his dispersion over the 

 greater part of its surface ; and therefore, that the 

 asserted alterations in the atmosphere, by the increase 

 of carbonic acid gas, if it did not affect their vitality, 

 must have been shared by man, and at most can have 

 operated only by very slow degrees.* In order to show 

 this probable coexisting state, other caverns may be 

 mentioned, which were discovered in the calcareous 

 mountains of Quercy, in the commune of Breigne, dis- 

 trict of Pigeac, and department du Lot, nearly in the 

 centre of Southern France. They occur chiefly on two 

 mountains, on opposite sides of the valley, at an eleva- 



* Captain W Adam, in M. S. Lectures, gives the English 

 coal formations alone to have returned : 



Oxygen 7,706,700,800 cubic feet. 



Absorbed carbonic acid . . 3,128,530,809 cubic feet. 



But since the remains of birds, of marsupials, &c., are dis- 

 covered, belonging to the eocene period, there does not 

 seem to exist any reason for presuming a marked atmos- 

 pheric difference could prevail, since the more perfect 

 vertebratse were in being. 



