132 THEORY OF THE EARTH. 



Yet human bones preserve equally well with 

 those of animals, when placed in the same circum- 

 stances ; and there is no observable difference in 

 this respect in Egypt between the mummies of men 

 and those of quadrupeds. I have picked up, from 

 the excavations made lately in the ancient church 

 at St. Genevieve, human bones that had been in- 

 terred below the remains of the first race, which 

 may even have belonged to some princes of the 

 family of Clovis, and which still retained their 

 forms very perfectly.* We do not find in ancient 

 fields of battle, that the skeletons of men are more 

 wasted than those of horses, except in so far as 

 they may be influenced by size, and we find 

 among extraneous fossils the bones of animals as 

 small as rats, perfectly well preserved. 



Every circumstance, therefore, contributes to 

 establish this position That the human race did 

 not exist in the countries in which the fossil bones 

 of animals have been discovered, at the epoch 

 when these bones were covered up ; as there can- 

 not be a single reason assigned why men should 

 have entirely escaped from such general catas- 

 trophes ; Or, if they also had been destroyed and 

 covered over at the same time, why their remains 

 should not now be found along with those of the 

 other animals. I do not presume, however, to 

 conclude that man did not exist at all before these 



* M. Fourcroy has given an analysis of these bones. 



