FRAzER—On a Great Sepulchral Mound. 43 
of this character are ascertained to be of frequent occurrence in French 
and English graveyards, referrible to dates from the fourth to the 
tenth century. Their presence and frequency in the Donnybrook find 
affords us strong additional corroboration as to the early date to 
which they must be ascribed. Platycnemic tibie were first observed 
in the cave-dwellers buried at Cro-Magnon in Perigord, belonging to 
the ancient Stone Period, or that when the reindeer roamed over the 
forests of Southern Europe. From this time they are noticed extend- 
ing through the ages when polished stone weapons were employed ; 
and out of 200 tibize collected near Paris, at St. Marcel and St. Ger- 
main des Pres, in cemeteries belonging to dates anterior to the tenth 
century, 5°25 per cent. were of this platycnemic form. 
With the platyenemic tibizee were found ‘‘channelled fibule”’ hav- 
ing inordinately large longitudinal grooves for the insertion of muscles. 
Another osseous peculiarity of primitive type, the femur ‘‘a colonne”’ 
was of rather common occurrence: this primitive modification of the 
human thigh bone is recognised by the great development of those 
two posterior ridges that form the linea aspera, their prominence and 
separation from each other leaving an intermediate space and pro- 
ducing a pilaster-like appearance that extends along the middle two- 
fifths of the posterior aspect of the bone. Such femurs are also found 
in the Cro-Magnon cave-dwellers; and in the cemeteries near Paris 
already mentioned, it was ascertained that out of 200 femurs; in 6°5 per 
cent. the column was very obvious, and in 386 per cent. was slightly 
seen. M. Topinard says, ‘“‘ It seems that these peculiarities of the 
tibiee, femora and fibule belonged to one and the same race in Western 
Kurope. The 30 subjects from the cave at Sordes in the Basque 
Territory all exhibit them.” 
Several of the jaw bones were distinguished by their massive form 
and depth, square-shaped angles, and the unusual development of the 
osseous ridges for muscular attachments. Their glossal spines were 
developed to an extent that I believe is never seen at the present day, 
at least in Irish jaws, forming sharp projecting bony spines in some 
instances measuring fully a quarter inch in length. 
There were some good specimens obtained of bones affected with 
chronic rheumatic arthritis. The polished eburnation of the head of a 
femur, its peculiar shape and osseous growths, afford unmistakeable 
proof that its former possessor suffered from this painful affection, so 
well described and illustrated by the late Dr. Robert Adams. The 
number of bones thus affected showed that this disease was not un- 
common. 
There is also a remarkable specimen of depression observed upon 
the upper portion of the outer surface of a frontal bone. This appears 
to have resulted from long-continued pressure caused by the growth 
of some external tumour, most probably a congenital wen of consider- 
able size, or at least one that must have become developed early in the 
individual’s life. 
The results noticed of an old fracture of both the tibia and fibula 
