150 FOSSIL REMAINS OF MAN. 



Dr. Fuhlrott, to whom science is indebted for the preser- 

 vation of these bones, which were not at first regarded as 

 human, and into whose possession they afterwards came, 

 brought the cranium from Elberfeld to Bonn, and en- 

 trusted it to me for a more accurate anatomical examina- 

 tion. At the General Meeting of the Natural History 

 Society of Prussian Rhineland and "Westphalia, at Bonn, 

 on the 2nd of June, 1857,* Dr. Fuhlrott himself gave a 

 full account of the locality and of the circumstances under 

 which the discovery was made. He was of opinion that 

 the bones might be regarded as fossil ; and in coming to 

 this conclusion, he laid especial stress upon the existence 

 of dendritic deposits, with which their surface was cov- 

 ered, and which were first noticed upon them by Professor 

 Mayer. To this communication I appended a brief report 

 on the results of my anatomical examination of the bones. 

 The conclusions at which I arrived were : 1st. That the 

 extraordinary form of the skull was due to a natural con- 

 formation hitherto not known to exist, even in the most 

 barbarous races. 2nd. That these remarkable human re- 

 mains belonged to a period antecedent to the time of the 

 Celts and Germans, and were in all probability derived 

 from one of the wild races of North-western Europe, 

 spoken of by Latin writers ; and which were encountered 

 as autochthones by the German immigrants. And 3rdly. 

 That it was beyond doubt that these human relics were 

 traceable to a period at which the latest animals of the 

 diluvium still existed ; but that no proof of this assump- 

 tion, nor consequently of their so-termed fossil condition, 

 was afforded by the circumstances under which the bones 

 were discovered. 



As Dr. Fuhlrott has not yet published his description 

 of these circumstances, I borrow the following account of 



* Ib. Corrcspondcnzblatt. No. 2. 



