THE NEANDERTHAL SKULL. 25 



general, and the bernicle goose in par- 

 ticular, being descended from " rotten 

 timber," is not original. It was a medieval 

 fable adopted by Saxo Graminaticus and 

 Giraldus in the dark ages, as well as by 

 the learned Joseph Scaliger and Bishop 

 Leslie in more modern days. Giraldus 

 especially explains how the " barnacles 

 grew from timber, being bred in a very 

 unaccountable and curious manner by the 

 juices of the wood in the sea water ; " 

 adding, that as " no eggs are laid by these 

 birds after pairing, as is the case with birds 

 in general, bishops and religious men in 

 Ireland make no scruple of eating these 

 birds on fasting days as not being flesh, 

 because they are not born of flesh."* This 

 will remind you of Professor HUXLEY'S 

 teaching concerning the danger of supping 

 on lobsters, for then, he says, the matter of 

 life of the crustacean would undergo the 

 same (he had previously been speaking of 

 sheep being transubstantiated into man) won- 



* Topography of Ireland, by Giraldus Cambriensis, 

 Dist. i., ch.. xi. 



