74 KELIQULE AQUITANIC^E. 



will be purely descriptive, comprising an account of the skulls in the first 

 Chapter, and of the other bones of the skeleton in the second. In the Second 

 Part (Chapter III.), I shall endeavour, as far as I can, to indicate the race to 

 which the Cave-dwellers of Pe"rigord belonged, and what we may deduce, from 

 their bony remains, as to their physical and moral qualities. 



CHAPTER I. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE CRANIA. 

 1. THE CRANIUM OF AN OLD MAN : SKULL No. 1. [C. PLATES I., II., AND C. PLATE III. fig. 1.] 



A. General Condition of this Cranium. 



This cranium is very large and heavy. When struck it gives off a sound like a glazed earthenware 

 bowl ; and it is covered in front with a slight stalagmitic crust, which gives to that portion a granular or 

 papillary aspect. A similar coating, though very slight, occurs also on the frontal region and the left 

 temporal bones. The anterior part of the crown is covered with reddish plates, such as are observable also 

 on the jaw, and are probably the result of an infiltration of oxide of iron ; otherwise the bones of this cranium 

 are dull white, and present a porous aspect. Very narrow fissures traverse the upper anterior part of the 

 crown in different directions. We may especially direct attention to a spot a little off the median line, in 

 the right* frontal region, measuring 35 millimetres in breadth and 29 in height, where the diploe is laid 

 bare. The outer edge of this depression is thicker than the inner edge ; and everything here leads us to 

 suppose that the frontal bone was affected with caries during life. One word also on some linear markings 

 which intersect each other on the posterior parietal region as though the bone had been scratched by the 

 cutting edge of a flint : a similar appearance is observable on the second male cranium, and also on some 

 femurs, where it was easy for us to establish the origin of these little depressions, which were clearly 

 caused by the rootlets of plants. There is no sign that this cranium had undergone any rolling by water ; 

 and the same remark is applicable to the other bones. 



The bones of the orbital and nasal cavities are wanting in this cranium, also a part of the left malar 

 bones and of its zygomatie process ; there is a defect at the base of the anterior border of the foramen 

 magnum ; and one of the two facets of the right condyle is wanting. The external pterygoid plates are 

 also defective, and the palatine bone of the left side. The lower maxilla wants the left ramus and the 

 right condyle. 



Excepting a stump in the upper jaw, all the teeth are wanting. Nevertheless, for the most part, the 

 sockets remain; they are deep, and everything indicates that the teeth were lost after interment; and 

 indeed some roots recently broken are visible in the sockets. All the teeth, however, in this skull were 

 not healthy ; for in the jaw there is a fistulous hole communicating with the socket of the inner incisor. 

 Moreover there are, on the same (left) side, between the last premolar and the first molar all the signs of 

 caries; for the partitions of the sockets are absent, and we see smooth little projections of bone on the jaw 

 below the sockets. Lastly some trace of caries shows itself in the upper molars. 



* The reader will remember that all the figures are reversed on the Plates illustrating the human bones. 



