Pjreiffn Literature and Science. 173 



■^to 



all directions, but of less dimensions than the limestone cav- 

 erns. They are filled however, with the clayey alluvion, 

 which descends to the greatest depths. 



It is in these clayey masses which fill the crevices of the 

 gypsum, that are found, collected in heaps or nests, and in 

 circumstances perfectly similar, a multitude of bones of ter- 

 restrial animals, among which are evidently some of the hu- 

 man species. These plaster quarries have been open thirty 

 years, during which these groups of bones have been found 

 always imbedded in the same manner. The human bones 

 are mingled with those of other animals, in detached pieces, 

 and without forming an entire skeleton. In considering all 

 the circumstances of their situation, it is fairly to be pre- 

 sumed, that thesehuman hones are really fossil remains, and 

 contemporaneous with the other bones with which they are 

 mingled; and that they have been driven and deposited by the 

 tvaters, which have formed the alluvial stratum tohich covers 

 the secondary rocks of this country ; and consequently then, 

 man existed prior to the formation of the alluvial earth, 

 which resulted from the last great revolution which has 

 changed the surface of the globe, and during which a north- 

 ern climate, before unknown, became established. 



Mr. Cuvier has justly observed in his researches, Tome L 

 page 66, that thus last epoch of the great inundation, 

 which destroyed a crowd of animal species, whose remains 

 are found only in alluvion, and in no rock more ancient, ac- 

 cords well with our chronology. The instructive facts now 

 before us, seem to add fresh confirmation to the tradition oF 

 this inundation, a tradition which is preserved among all 

 nations. 



The principal parts of the human frame that have been 

 thus obtained, are a frontal bone, with the half of the 

 ophthalmic orbits, the left part of a male pelvis, the tibia of 

 the left leg, and the right and left femur. 



Bihliothique Universelle, J^ov. 1820. 



2. Climate of the South of France. — Dr. James Clark has 

 published (London, 1820,) "Medical notes on Climate," 

 in which he appears to prove, that consumptive patients have 

 no just reason to expect that benefit from the air of the 

 northern shore of the Mediterranean, which so many are 

 eager to seek for. The wind which blows from the mari- 



