OP MOULIN-QUIGNOINr. 615 



black coating of the supposed natural matrix was washed off 

 the surface of one of the segments with great facility. But 

 small specks of the same fine black matter remained in some 

 of the minute hollows and miliary pores. These were re- 

 moved without difficulty by the application of a tooth-brush. 

 The general colour of the washed surface was a light buff, 

 mottled with faint brownish stains, which were persistent, 

 resembling those frequently observable in bones that have 

 lain long buried in the earth. But the outer surface was 

 tolerably smooth and perfect, presenting little indication of 

 the superficial erosion commonly seen on old bones derived 

 from cemeteries. There was no appearance either on the 

 exterior or within of dendritic deposits. This is a point in 

 which the jaw differed remarkably from other bones of un- 

 doubted fossil antiquity, found in the Somme gravel deposits, 

 and which contrasted also strongly with the jaw in the 

 greater amount of alteration by loss of gelatine which they 

 had undergone. The substance of the bone was dry and 

 friable towards the alveolar border, but on the whole it was 

 tolerably firm under the sand and but little altered, and the 

 fresh section afforded a distinct odour of sawn bone. Inter- 

 nally the structure was absolutely free from any sign of mine- 

 ral impregnation. The cortical layer, which was remarkably 

 thin and condensed, was nearly white, and the walls of the 

 empty cancelli of a faint brownish tint. The upper aperture 

 of the dental canal was covered over with the black coating, 

 which had penetrated well into the mental foramen. The 

 most remarkable appearance in the section was the lining, 

 as it were, of the middle portion of the same canal, with a 

 thin layer of fine grey sand, easily removed by the point of 

 a needle, and which, when examined under the microscope, 

 was seen to consist of minute grains of white quartz or silex, 

 intermixed with a few particles of oxide of iron, but with- 

 out a speck of the black matrix. The section of the fang 

 showed that the dentine, so far as exposed, was perfectly 

 white, full of gelatine, and in no respect different in appear- 

 ance from that of a recent tooth. In short, it reproduced 

 exactly the characters which I had previously described as 

 yielded by the section of the fang of the ' detached molar,' 

 and which had impressed me and others so strongly with the 

 conviction of its being a recent tooth. The body of the 

 molar present in the jaw was hollow from caries, but the 

 enamel was white and brilliant, and without the slightest 

 appearance of alteration. The crusta petrosa, very little of 

 which was present, was very faintly coloured. The socket 

 towards the upper part was not completely filled by the fang, 

 and the interval was partially occupied by the black matrix 



