306 , c&n. The American Naturalist. [April, 
practically to the same conditions and surroundings. As one 
swallow does not make a summer so the discovery of one spec- 
imen does not prove the antiquity of man; but it is to be re- 
marked that upon each discovery and in almost every investi- 
gation the evidence found points towards higher antiquity of 
man and tends to show the occupation of the earth by prehis- 
toric: man to be more and more extensive. This discovery is 
simply a fact to be put down to the credit of the high antiq- 
uity of man. We should proceed in the same direction to dis- 
cover other evidences, to investigate the value of those already 
found; and as they accumulate, each one, or all together, 
should be given. their fair value, in the endeavor to arrive at 
a truthful conclusion, independent of a priori theory or pre- 
conceived idea. 
The possibility of the determination of the relative antiquity 
of human bones found in prehistoric graves has set the chem- 
ists and prehistoric anthropolgists to an investigation of the 
fluorine test. Mons. Zaborowski presented a paper before the 
Academy of Sciences at Paris on the 1st of May, 1893, upon 
the differences in the chemical composition between two skel- 
etons alleged to be prehistoric, those of Thiail and of Villejuif. 
‘These analyses were made by Mons. Adolphe Carnot, En- 
gineer-in-Chief of Mines, and a professor of the Superior 
School of Mines, Paris. The result of these analyses was to 
show that the skeleton of Villejuif was much the oldest of the 
two and that it accorded well with other ancient bones which, 
from their surroundings and associations, were definitely de- 
termined. In the Bulletins de la Societe d’Anthropologie of 
Paris, Vol. IV, No. 6, the Seance of 18th of May, page 309, 
Mons. Emile Riviére gave the results of his investigations, 
comparisons and analyzations of alleged prehistoric bones 
belonging to the deposit of Billancourt. The excavations of 
this deposit have been pursued by Mons. Riviére during the 
seven years from 1875 to 1882, and the extinct fauna which he ` 
had obtained therefrom consisted of Elephas primigenius, Rhi- 
noceros tichorinus, Cervus megaceros, Tarandus rangifer, Bos 
primigenius, etc. There were also found in one of the river 
drifts in the immediate neighborhood of Billancourt, the re- 
