526 [April 16, 



The particulars I have now to communicate as the result of my 

 own personal examination should, I think, most completely satisfy 

 any unprejudiced person that, on the one hand, the specimen cannot 

 have been a "plant" contrived by the workman, and, on the other, 

 that it could not have found its way into the bed in which it was 

 discovered by any disturbing agency subsequent to the original 

 deposition of that bed * . 



When M. Boucher de Perthes had the kindness to place in my 

 hands this precious fragment which consists of the right half of 

 the lower jaw, containing three teeth I was immediately struck 

 with its almost black colour, its solidity, and its weight : all these 

 peculiarities (which are in marked contrast to the characters of the 

 bones ordinarily found in these gravel-pits) being obviously due to 

 one and the same cause, viz. metallic (ferruginous?) infiltration. 

 The ordinary flints, and the flint implements obtained from the same 

 deposit, several of which are in the museum of M. de Perthes, are 

 all of them characterized by a like depth of ferruginous tint, which 

 is not seen in any of those taken from any other part of the same 

 pit, or from any other gravel-pit yet opened in the neighbourhood 

 of Abbeville. 



As to the anatomical characters of this jaw, I should not wish, 

 without a more careful comparative examination of the specimen 

 than I had the opportunity of making, to give any decided opinion ; 

 but my impression is that they differ very decidedly from those of 

 the same bone in any race at present inhabiting Western Europe. 



* I think it right to leave my original statement as the record of the impression 

 which was made not only upon myself, but upon other more competent observers, 

 by the first examination of the specimen iu question, which was limited to its ex- 

 ternal characters. Its colour has been subsequently proved to be due to the ad- 

 hesion of a thin layer of the ferruginous matrix, which adhered closely to its sur- 

 face, and yet could be readily washed off, leaving the bone but slightly stained. 

 The impression of solidity was produced by the density of the bone itself ; the lower 

 jaw being the densest bone in the body next to the petrous portion of the tem- 

 poral bone, and having in aged subjects an almost ivory-like hardness. The im- 

 pression of weight was not really produced by metallic infiltration, as was at first 

 supposed, but was partly due to a want of adequate allowance for the density of 

 the bone itself, and partly to the adhesion, on one side, of a good deal of the ma- 

 trix, which has been found to contain as much as 12 per cent, of oxide of iron ; 

 and it may also have been in part subjective, arising from a preconception, sug- 

 gested by the general appearance of the bone, that it had undergone infiltration. 

 The colour of the flint implements said to have been found in the same deposit, 

 has proved to be removable by washing ; whilst some of the ordinary flints are 

 stained by real ferruginous infiltration. June 15, W. B. C. 



