THE HUMAN SrECIES. 159 



of animal juices, and in a chalky state. On examination, in 

 proper chemical tests, by Dr. Armstrong, of the Royal Naval 

 Hospital at Plymouth, and by Mr. Oxland, chemist, both 

 gentlemen came to conclusions which did not invalidate Mr. 

 Bellamy's investigation, though they presented a smaller 

 quantity of gelatine or animal matter than was obtained from 

 the bones above mentioned. Human bones, from the Brixham 

 Cavern, were said to be recent, though they appeared to us as 

 if the extremities had been gnawed, and marks of teeth were 

 traceable at the sides. Not far from the cave where these 

 remains were found, there was dug out of the sand a thoroughly 

 fossilized head of a Deer (Rangifer ?), within a few feet of a 

 humerus of some great feline, not less than a Panther, but hav- 

 ing all the appearance and color of a recent bone. Great dis- 

 similarity exists in the conditions of the bones of extinct 

 mammals, undoubtedly arising in part from their relative ages, 

 but still more from the localities where they are found de- 

 posited. Those of Megatherium, often discovered on the sur- 

 face of the Pampas of Brazil, necessarily differ from bones 

 located in clefts of limestone rocks in the same country. 

 Again, there is a change between these and the Mastodons of 

 the clayey bone licks of North America and gravels of Eng- 

 land ; and, still more, between those of the Asiatic Mammoths, 

 which are so perfectly fresh that bears have devoured the flesh 

 after many ages of preservation in ice or frozen earth. The 

 bones found in Gibraltar breccia are not in the same condition 

 as those dug out of the red loam or clay beneath stalagmites. 

 They are dissimilar even in the same caves, and therefore we 

 may infer that the criterion whereby their age is to be deter- 

 mined is exceedingly questionable, and, consequently, that 

 human bones found among them, and under similar conditions, 

 should not be made exceptions upon hypothetical assumptions, 

 but treated similarly with those around them. No new theory 

 of guesses should be admitted for every recurring case. With 

 regard to the pretence that they may have dropped into the 



