QUADRUMANA. 313 



ceedings of the meeting of the Asiatic Society held on that 

 date. Messrs. Baker and Durand, although later in point of 

 actual discovery, were before Captain Cautley and myself in 

 publication, they having wisely availed themselves of the 

 local scientific journal, while we forwarded our memoir to 

 the Geological Society. Our friends, therefore, established 

 a just claim to priority of publication, which we have never 

 dreamt of questioning. It is not with them that we are at 

 issue, but with the iaexact historians of the case. 



The 5th vol., second series, of the ' Geological Transactions,' 

 contains a memoir by Captain Cautley, bearing upon the 

 fossil remains of the Sewalik hills ; it contains comments in 

 a foot-note by the referee, and the index of the volume points 

 out that they were contributed by Professor Owen. 



Let us now examine the reputed history. In the first 

 part of the ' British Fossil Mammalia,' published in 1844, 

 the author gives an account of the occurrence of Quadrumana 

 in the fossil state. He assigns the first discovered case to 

 Lieutenants Baker and Dm-and, in 1836, and then goes on 

 to state, that in the ' year following' Captain Cautley and 

 myself discovered a considerable portion of a lower jaw con- 

 taining teeth. ' Fragments of two other lower jaws and an 

 entire astragalus were subsequently discovered by these gen- 

 tlemen.' Professor Owen here omits any notice of our 

 memoir of the 24th November, 1836, which appeared in the 

 same 5th vol. of the ' Geological Transactions,' along with the 

 other, which passed through his hands as referee, and bears 

 annotations by him. He jumbles aU our quadrumanous 

 findings together, and the most important being the astra- 

 galus, which was first in date, he puts last. 



Sir Charles Lyell gives an historical note in the ' Principles 

 of Geology,' on the same subject, in these words : — ' The 

 first quadrumanous fossils discovered in India were observed 

 in 1836 in the Sewalik hills, a lower range of the Himalayah 

 Mountains, by Lieutenants Baker and Durand, by whom 

 their osteological characters were determined (Journal of 

 Asiatic Soc. of Bengal, voL v. p. 739), and in the year follow- 

 ing other fossils of the same class were brought to light and 

 described by Captain Cautley and Dr. Falconer.' On this 

 occasion the author quotes our memoir in the ' Journal of the 

 Asiatic Society of Bengal,' vol. vi. p. 354, for May, 1837; 

 but he makes no mention of the Astragalus Memoir of 

 November, 1836, and the note bears internal evidence that 

 in framing it he followed Professor Owen as his guide, 

 instead of consulting the original authorities. Beyond this 

 he is blameless, he not being a professed expert in mamma- 

 lian Palseontology. But the combined high authority and 



