1864.] 



Prof. Owen on the Cavern ofBmniqueh 



27f 



Lieut.-Col. Strange ; Mr. W. H. Flower ; Dr. Cobbold ; Col. W. J. Smythe ; 

 Sir J. C. Dalrymple Hay, Bart.; and Mr. A. J. Ellis, were admitted into 

 the Society. 



Pursuant to notice given at the last Meeting, MM. Claude Bernard, 

 Jean Bernard Leon Foucault, and Adolph Wurtz, all of Paris, were balloted 

 for and elected Foreign Members of the Society. 



The following communication was read : — 



" Description of the Cavern of Bruniquel, and its Organic Contents. 

 — Part I. Human Kemains.^^ By Professor Richard Owen, 

 F.R.S., &c. Received May 13, 1864. 



(x\bstract.) 



In this communication the author gives an account of the Cavern of 

 Bruniquel, Department of the Tarn and Garonne, France, in the state which 

 it presented when visited by him in January 1864, and a description of the 

 human remains discovered therein by the proprietor, the Yicomte de Lastic 

 St. Jal, in 1863, and subsequently by the author in January 1864. 



The circumstances under which these discoveries were made are minutely 

 detailed, and the contemporaneity of the human remains with those of the 

 extinct and other animals with which they are associated, together with the 

 flint and bone implements, is showTi by the evidences of the plastic condition 

 of the calcified mud of the breccia at the time of interment, by the chemical 

 constitution of the human bones, corresponding with that of the other 

 animal remains, and by the similarity of their position and relations in the 

 surrounding breccia. 



Among the principal remains of the men of the flint-period described are 

 the following : — 1st, the hinder portion of the cranium, with several other 

 parts of the same skeleton, which were so situated in their matrix as to 

 indicate that the body had been interred in a crouching posture, and that, 

 after decomposition and dissolution of the soft parts, the skeleton had 

 yielded to the superincumbent weight ; 2nd, an almost entire calvarium, 

 which is described and compared with difi'erent types of the human skull, 

 shown to be superior in form and capacity to the Australian type, and more 

 closely to correspond with the Celtic type, though proportionally shorter 

 than the modern Celtic, and the form exhibited by the Celtic cranium from 

 Engis, Switzerland ; 3rd, jaws and teeth of individuals of difi'erent ages. 



After noticing other smaller portions of human cranium, the author 

 proceeds to describe minutely the lower jaw and teeth of an adult, and 

 upper and lower jaws of immature individuals, showing the characters of 

 certain deciduous teeth. The proportions of the molars are not those of 

 the Austrahan, but of other races, and especially those of ancient and 

 modern Europeans. As in most primitive or early races in which masti- 

 cation was Uttle helped by arts of cookery or by various and refined kinds 

 of food, the crowns of the molars, especially of ?n 1, are worn down beyond 



y2 



