LIIWEAN SOCIETY OP LONDON. XCIX 



cieties, excited the interest of men of science in the case. Eollow- 

 ing up the same object, he immediately afterwards proceeded to 

 Sicily to examine the ossiferous caves there, and discovered the 

 " G-rottO di Maccagnone," in which flint implements of great an- 

 tiquity were found adhering to the roof-matrix mingled with re- 

 mains of hyenas, now extinct in Europe. An account of this 

 important case was communicated to the Greological Society (Quart. 

 Journ. of G-eol. Soc. 1859, vol. xvii. p. 99). Having examined the 

 collection of M. Boucher de Perthes, on his route to Sicily, he was 

 impressed with the authenticity of some of the flint implements 

 discovered in the valley of the Somme, and urged his friend Mr. 

 Prestwich, who is of the highest authority in this branch of geo- 

 logy, to proceed there and investigate the conditions of the cave. 

 This led to Mr. Prestwich' s celebrated memoir on the flint-yielding 

 quaternary deposits of the Somme (Phil. Trans. 1859). Thus, 

 in 1859, the subject of the antiquity of the human race, which 

 had previously been generally discredited among men of science, 

 was again launched upon fresh evidence in both the stratigraphical 

 and the cave aspects. Since then it has been actively followed up 

 by numerous iuquirers, and Dr. Falconer himself was contempla- 

 tiag, and had indeed actually commenced, a work on " Primeval 

 Man." In 1863 Dr. Palconer took an active share in the singu- 

 larly perplexed discussion of the cause celebre of the human jaw of 

 Moulin Quignon ; and, in the conference of English and French 

 men of science held in France, he expressed doubts as to its 

 authenticity, but in that guarded and cautious manner which was 

 characteristic of him (Nat. Hist. Eev. 1863, p. 423). In the spring 

 of last year he called attention in ' The Times ' to the remarkable 

 works of art by " primeval man " discovered by his friends Messrs. 

 Lartet and Henry Christy in the ossiferous caves of the Dordogne, 

 and in September, in company with myself, proceeded to Gribraltar, 

 to examine caves in which marvellously well-preserved remains 

 of man and mammals, of great antiquity, had been discovered. 

 Before starting, we drew up a preliminary report on the speci- 

 mens brought from Gribraltar to this country, which was presented 

 to the British Association at Bath. He attached great importance 

 to the results of this expedition, and on his return home at once 

 commenced a careful examination of the fossil remains of Gribraltar, 

 the results of which he intended to elaborate, in conjunction 

 with those of his explorations in Sicily, into a separate work on 

 the Mediterranean Cave-Fauna. 



But his labours were at an end. He suffered considerably from 



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