262 



LECTURE X. 



Human Eemains from Denise, near Puy. — Fraudulent speculations. — Dilu- 

 vium in the Somnie Valley. — Flint Implements. — Human Jaw. — Dilu- 

 vium of Joinville. — Diluvium of Hoxne. — Brazilian Caverns. — Alluvium 

 of North America. — Civilisation of Primitive Peoples. — Skulls of Engis 

 and the Neander Valley. — Proportions of these Crania compared to 

 those of living races of Mankind and Apes. 



Gentlemen, — We have, in tlie preceding lecture, given an 

 accumulation of proofs that man existed contemporaneously 

 witli the extinct animals in the so-called diluvial period. But 

 as the deposits in fissures and caves always present some extra- 

 ordinary mysterious character, it may not be out of place to 

 examine such human remains as are found in alluvial formations, 

 in the open soil, where we shall meet with some additional im- 

 portant facts in relation to the ag-e of the strata. 



In 184^ an account was published of the discovery of a 

 human skeleton, or rather of several human bones, in a volcanic 

 block, found in the vicinity of Puy, on the slopes of the extinct 

 volcano Denise. The remains consisted chiefly of two pieces 

 of the upper jaw, the frontal part of the forehead, some other 

 cranial parts, a lumbar vertebra, a portion of the radius, and 

 two metatarsal bones. The block itself consisted of light 

 porous tuff, in which the bones are imbedded, and behind which 

 is a harder stone, consisting of alternate layers of clayish 

 lava. Blocks of a similar kind, a product of the last eruption 

 of the now extinct volcano, are frequently met with in volcanic 

 alluvia ; they, perhaps, formed at first mudstreams, which, on 

 drying up, became more condensed. In these tuff blocks, in 

 the vicinity of the town of Puy, are found the mammoth and 

 the rhinoceros with a bony nasal septum, whilst in the other 

 tuffs, which evidently belong to older eruptions of the same 

 volcano, other animals occur, which, according to French 

 naturahsts, belong to an older Fauna. The human bones found 

 in Denise thus belong to the same peiiod as the bones of the 



