Fossil Remains of Apes. 437 



We have here then, for a single shell, 5 generic names, 

 among which we must choose Mytilus, Dreissena, Congeria, 

 Tichogonia, or Mytilina. Must we not fear, if such dif- 

 ferences were often to take place, that nomenclature, instead 

 of being a uniform language f or scientific men all over the 



• 1 ' 



world, would become as various as the countries, and even 

 as the opinions of the scientific in each quarter of the globe ? 

 (L. Hermes, July, 1837.) 



Notice respecting the Fossil Remains of Apes. — M. de Blain- 

 ville has reported to the academy in his own name and in 

 that of MM. Dumeril and Flourens, some observations 

 upon the fossil bones discovered in the commune of Sausan, 

 near Auch, by M. Lartet 



After having discussed all the facts relative to the discovery 

 of the fossil bones of apes, he goes on to say : — 



" Thus, till quite lately, it was certain that no trace 

 had been discovered left by any animal of the ape tribe, in 

 even those beds which lay nearest the surface of the earth, 

 nor even in the alluvial strata, when M. Lartet announced 

 to the academy, in a letter read at the scientific meeting of 

 the 17th of last January, that he had just found in the 

 numerous and curious assemblage of fossil bones, discovered 

 by him in the environs of Auch, the lower jaw of an ape, 

 properly so called, one of the grinders of a marmoset 

 (sapajou), and the anterior extremity of the lower jaw of an 

 animal of the family of makis." 



The singular interest of so unexpected a discovery, the 

 coexistence in the same deposit, on the one hand of the 

 bones of the rhinoceros, the dinotherium, the mastodon, 

 the stag, and the antelope ; and on the other, bones of 

 the Quadriimana of Asia, America, and Madagascar, caused 

 the correctness of his determinations to be questioned. 

 The sending a second letter containing a detailed description 

 of the lower jaw of the ape, accompanied by a figure, might 

 have established beyond doubt the truth of a part of M. 

 Lartet's announcement. Nevertheless to prove not only that 

 it was certainly an ape which was under consideration, 

 but, moreover, a gibbon (a group of quadrumanous animals 

 which are scarcely known, except in the large islands of the 

 Indian Archipelago), more than a representation was neces- 

 sary. M. Lartet, in consequence, has sent the bone itself, 

 and all those which he has thought might be referred to the 

 Quadriimana. 



The jaw attributed to the gibbon is an almost complete 

 lower one, in which only the terminal parts of the rami are 

 wanting, and it is provided with all its teeth. The total 

 number of teeth is 16, that is to say 4 incisive, 2 canine, 



