FOSSIL REPTILES. 335 



roundness can only be the effect of chance, and will prove 

 nothing. 



How have the orbits become so large ? Let us suppose that 

 the head has been compressed from front to back, or that there 

 is nothing of it but a vertical section ; on either supposition 

 this size of the orbits is equally inexplicable. The deeper such 

 a section was sunk, the smaller the orbits would become. 



The interval of the orbits is furnished with entire bones, dis- 

 tinguished by a longitudinal suture. There is nothing analo- 

 gous to this structure in man. Why are not the bones or 

 cavity of the nose to be seen, and if there are remains of the 

 posterior part only, how was this suture formed there ? 



How does it happen that in a head, whether compressed or 

 cut, no trace of teeth should remain ? We know that the 

 teeth are the parts which are always best preserved in the 

 fossils. Scheuchzer supposes that the bones placed at the two 

 sides of the first vertebra are the remains of the lower jaw. 

 But, in fact, there is no resemblance, and the total want of 

 teeth is decisive. 



These reasons, and many more, caused naturalists to seek 

 for some other type for this fossil, beside man. But instead of 

 having recourse to direct comparison, they began to argue on 

 the subject. The quarries of (Eningen, they averred, abounded 

 with remains of fresh water fishes, which all appeared to be 

 fish peculiar to Europe. Among these fish, therefore, they 

 reasoned, among fresh-water fish, and among the fish of Eu- 

 rope, we must find our animal. Now what species is suffi- 

 ciently large to have furnished this skeleton ? It was then 

 remembered that the silurus glanis often attains a very large 

 size, and that its head, externally, presents a rounded contour. 

 This was deemed sufficient to solve the problem without any 

 further trouble of examination or comparison. 



It was singular enough that M. Karg should have adopted 

 this opinion, after having observed, and caused to be drawn, 

 the specimen of Dr. Ammann, the resemblance of which to a 



