Additional Notes. 499 



languages tliat were never l)efore committed to the press; has 

 compared these with languages more generally known, both 

 on the eastern and western continents; and has thence deduced 

 new evidence in support of the opinion that the nations pf 

 America and those of Asia have a common origin, and that 

 all mankind are derived from a single pair. 



Several of the writers on the natural history of man, men- 

 tioned in pages 117 and 1 18, have delivered opinions grossly- 

 deceptive and erroneous; but to enter into a particular dis- 

 cussion of their comparative merits cannot he undertaken in 

 this place. 



Fossil Bones, p. 119. 



Besides tlie writers enumerated in tlie above-mentioned 

 page, whohave greatly distinguished themselves by their in- 

 quiries on the subject o( fossil bones, it would be improper to 

 pass without notice two others, who gained considerable re- 

 putation by their labours on this subject. The first is Dr. Bre y- 

 Nius, or Breyne, a German, who was contemporary with 

 Sir Hans Sloane, and who published some papers on this 

 brancli of zoology in the Fhilosophiccd Transactions, He 

 was among the earliest writers, and, it is believed, the very 

 first of any distinction who wrote on the subject of fossil 

 bones. The second is the Abbe Fortis, who, in his Tra^ 

 tels in Dcdmatia, also gave some interesting and instructive 

 information on this subject, 



M. Cuvier, of France, a member of the National Insti- 

 tute, and a celebrated zoologist, has been for some time en- 

 gaged in a very extensive work upon the species of quadrupeds, 

 whose bones have been found in the interior parts of the earth. 

 He has undertaken to settle the controversy concerning these 

 animal relics. He says, that the strata of every country upon 

 earth contain bones different from those of the animals which 

 now inhabit their surface: that, with the singlq exception of 

 ruminant animals, all the complete fossil bones whlcli he has 

 seen, are different from those of quadrupeds now alive: that 

 o^ these he has been able to ascertain tivcnti/- three species, all 

 certainly unknown at this day, and which appear to have 

 been entirely destroyed, though their bones evince their ex-, 

 jstence in foriner ages. 



