1901) MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 199 
of Cuvier except the sturgeon. As examples may be men- 
tioned the sharks and rays. Many are fossil. Scales not 
enamelled: Otenoid fishes. Scales horny or bony, ser- 
rated or spinous at the posterior margin. Contains the 
perch and many other existing species, but few fossil. 
Cycloid fishes.—Scales smooth, horny, or bony, entire at 
the posterior margin ; as the salmon, herring, roach, and 
most of our edible and freshwater fishes. The majority 
of the fossil fishes belong to the first two orders, and 
most of the recent to the third and fourth.—Science Gossip. 
A Microscopic Proof of the Food of a Prehistoric Man. 
T. CHARTERS WHITE. 
Several years ago a barrow was opened on the downs. 
near Warminister in which a number of human and ani- 
mal remains were found heaped over the skeleton of an 
infant. Together with these were numerous roughly form- 
ed flint implements, indicating the period as that of the 
early Stone Age, the only metal being in the form of a 
bronze ornament of very primitive design. Having been 
allowed to make an examination of some of the human 
jaws, 1 now describe the condition of one as bearing on. 
the question of prehistoric food. 
It may appear impossible to affirm with any certainty 
the character of the food of individuals who existed prob- 
ably three thousand or four thousand years ago; but the 
conditions under which the remains were found place us 
in a position to state, without any doubt, the nature of 
food consumed by the individual whose lower jaw is the 
subject of investigation. The gentleman was perfectly 
ignorant of the use of a toothbrush, and probably what- 
ever performed an analogus function in others of his sur- 
rounding circle failed in his case ; for his lower teeth were 
almost entirely covered by that salivary cehenins popu- 
larly known as “‘tartar.”’ 
