ON CUTS ON BONE IN REMOTE AGES. 223 
REMARKS ON THE FOREGOING PAPER. 
Rev, J. M. Metuo, M.A., F.G.S., writes :— 
Professor M’Kenny Hughes’ paper on “Cuts on Bone” shows us 
that the mere occurrence of such cuts, however regularly disposed, 
is no absolute proof, per se, of the agency of an intelligent being 
such as man. 
Professor Capellini’s discovery in the Pliocene of Monte Aperto of 
the bones of a whale bearing rectilinear and circular incisions, may 
be cited in illustration of this subject. It was argued that the 
nature of the cuts on these bones was such that they could be 
ascribed only to intelligent agency ; that had they been made, as 
was urged, by fish, then the two jaws of the fish would have left 
traces opposing each other, whereas none such were found, and the 
incisions were only on the convex side of the ribs, and on one side 
only of the carcass of the Balcenotus, as would have been the case 
had man discovered the stranded beast and attempted to deprive it 
of its fleshy covering. It was denied that the teeth of Squaloid 
‘sharks, which are found in the same deposit, could have made the 
incisions, as the direction of some of them was stated to be incom- 
patible with such bites. On the other hand, M. Mortillet says that. 
it has been shown that these teeth, with their finely-serrated edge, 
have actually left the trace of these delicate serrations in the bottom 
of the incisions; besides this, there are also other fish which are 
armed with isolated weapons capable of giving marks identical with 
some of those found, whilst they could not have been made by 
flints. In addition to this, we have the fact that no flint implements 
have been found with the Baloenotus, no other bones have been so 
marked, and the climax is reached when we are told that, at the 
time when the Balcenotus perished, the Tuscan hills had not even 
emerged from the sea. M. Delfortrie, as long ago as 1867, found 
incised bones in the Tertiary deposits of Léogran, and showed. that 
they could be attributed to the numerous carnivorous fish whose 
remains abound in the same beds. These considerations have led 
to the abandonment of the supposed evidence of man’s existence in 
Pliocene times derived from cuts on bone, and, unless such cuts were 
