CHAP. IV. DR. SCHMERLING ON HUMAN AND OTHER BONES. 63 



led me, and other geologists, to reconsider the evidence pre 

 viously derived from caves "brought forward in proof of 

 the high antiquity of man. With a view of re-examining 

 this evidence, I have lately explored several caverns in 

 Belgium and other countries, and re-read the principal 

 memoirs and treatises treating of the fossil remains preserved 

 in them, the results of which inquiries I shall now proceed 

 to lay before the reader. 



Researches, in 1833-1834, of Dr. Schmerling in the Caverns 

 near Liege. 



The late Dr. Schmerling of Liege, a skillful anatomist and 

 paleontologist, after devoting several years to the exploring 

 of the numerous ossiferous caverns which border the valleys 

 of the Meuse and its tributaries, published two volumes, 

 descriptive of the contents of more than forty caverns. One 

 of these volumes consisted of an atlas of plates, illustrative of 

 the fossil bones.* 



Many of the caverns had never before been entered by 

 scientific observers, and their floors were encrusted with 

 unbroken stalagmite. At a very early stage of his investiga 

 tions, Dr. Schmerling found the bones of man so rolled and 

 scattered, as to preclude all idea of their having been inten 

 tionally buried on the spot. He also remarked that they were 

 of the same colour, and in the same condition as to the amount 

 of animal matter contained in them, as those of the accom 

 panying animals, some of which, like the cave-bear, hysena, 

 elephant, and rhinoceros, were extinct ; others, like the wild 

 cat, beaver, wild boar, roe-deer, wolf, and hedgehog, still extant. 

 The fossils were lighter than fresh bones, except such as had 

 their pores filled with carbonate of lime, in which case they 



* Kecherches sur les Ossements fos- a Province de Liege. Liege, 1833 

 siles decouverts dans les Cavernes de 1834. 



