406 FOSSIL REMAINS OF MAN. 



NOTE L, p. 119. 



FOSSIL REMAINS OF THE HUMAN SPECIES. 



FROM the observations of Werner and others, it ap- 

 pears, that the most simple animals are those first met 

 with in a mineralized state ; that these are succeeded by 

 others more perfect, and which are contained in newer 

 formations ; and that the most perfect, as quadrupeds, 

 occur only in the newest formation. But we naturally 

 inquire, have no remains of the human species been hi- 

 therto discovered in any of the formations ? Judging 

 from the arrangement already mentioned, we would na- 

 turally expect to meet with remains of man in the new- 

 est of the formations. In the writings of ancient au- 

 thors there are descriptions of anthropolithi. In the 

 year 1577, Fel. Plater, Professor of Anatomy at Basle, 

 described several fossil bones of the elephant found at 

 Lucerne, as those of a giant at least nineteen feet 

 high. The Lucemese were so perfectly satisfied with 

 this discovery, that they caused a painting to be made of 

 the giant, as he must have appeared when alive, assumed 

 two such giants as the supporters of the city arms, and 

 had the painting hung in their public hall. The Land- 

 voigt Engel, not satisfied with this account of these re- 

 mains, maintained that our planet, before the creation of 

 the present race of men, was inhabited by fallen angels, 

 and that these bones were part of the skeletons of some 

 of those miserable beings. Scheuchzer published an en- 

 graving and description of a fossil human skeleton, which 

 proved to be a gigantic species of salamander or proteus. 



