538 ON CAVES CONTAINING BONES 



had devoured the dead bodies of their own species, as 

 those of the present day still do. 



These animals attack each other during their life ; for 

 the fossil head of a hyena is preserved, which had evi- 

 dently been wounded and afterwards healed *. 



* The fact mentioned in the text brings to our recollection an 

 interesting Memoir of Professor Walther, entitled, " On the Anti- 

 quity of diseases in Bones," printed in Grasse and Walther's Jour- 

 nal der Chirurgie und Augenheil Kunde, viii. From eleven speci- 

 mens of bones of cave-bears found in the Caves of Sundwich. de- 

 scribed by Walther, a proof is obtained, that the common forms of 

 osseous diseases occur in them, just as they are observed at pre- 

 sent in the human species, viz. necrosis, anchylosis, caries, exosto- 

 sis, formation of new bony matter, thickening, thinning, and arthri- 

 tic properties of diseased bones. Most of those diseases are such as 

 would result from violent injuries, and the consequent very tedious 

 organ o- vital reaction. Such mechanical injuries would give rise 

 to necrosis, caries, exostosis, &c. We can easily conceive, says 

 Walther, how that the rapacious animals of a former world may 

 have been exposed to violent mechanical injuries of their bodies, 

 and of single parts of them. It is worthy of remark, that most of 

 the diseased bones are of the lower jaw, the alveolar processes of it 

 and the walls of single alveolae. During the combats of the cave 

 bears for their prey amongst themselves, or with other gigantic ani- 

 mals, the jaws and teeth must have experienced the greatest me- 

 chanical injuries. The necroses of the humeral bones are such as 

 might result from a bruising of the bones, and the caries of the up- 

 per surface of the bodies of the lumbar vertebrae, may have been 

 occasioned by external violence. Walther is also of opinion, that 

 the cave-bears suffered from diseases of the bones not referrible to 

 mechanical injuries. He remarks of a radius and a vertebra, whose 

 arthritic condition he carefully describes, " These bones have ex- 

 perienced pathological changes, which could only arise from a long 

 continued diseased condition of the nutritive process. They are very 

 light, have an extremely thin crust, the greater part of their mass 

 is of a spongy, very porous substance, and are uncommonly fragile. 





