136 Prof. Owen. On Parts of a Human Skeleton. [Dec. 6, 



December 6, 1883. 



THE PRESIDENT in the Chair. 



The President announced that he had appointed as Vice-Presi- 

 dents : — 



The Treasurer. 

 The Duke of Argyll. 

 Mr. De La Rue. 

 Mr. Francis Gralton. 

 Professor Prestwich.. 



The Presents received were laid on the table and thanks ordered for 

 them. 



The following Papers were read-: — 



I. " Description of Parts of a Human Skeleton from a Pleisto- 

 cene (Paleolithic) Bed, Tilbury, Essex." By Professor 

 Owen, CLB, F.R.S., &c. Received November 26, 1883. 



((Abstract.) 



The subject of the present paper was discovered during the 'excava- 

 tions of docks now in progress at Tilbury Fort, Essex, at a depth of 

 32 feet from the present surface. It consists of a considerable pro- 

 portion of a human skeleton, the parts of which are determined and 

 described. The inferences deduced are that they were from a some- 

 what aged male of great muscular strength ; and such inferences as to 

 food, as might be drawn from the worn crowns of the teeth in use at 

 his demise, are given. A chemical analysis of the bones is added by 

 Dr. Walter Flight, of the Laboratory Department in the British 

 Museum.. A section of the several strata dug through before arriving 

 at the bed is appended. 



This section determines the man to have lived at the so-called 

 " Palaeolithic period." The author acknowledges his indebtedness to 

 Colonel Du Plat Taylor for the transmission of the skeleton, with 

 a notification of its discovery, in a letter of the 1st October, 1883.; also 

 to Mr. Donald Baynes, engineer <of the dock works, who transmitted 

 a section of the strata. These consist, from the grave-bed upwards, 

 of " sand," " mud," " peat," " mud and peat," " mud," " clay." 



Figures of the bones and teeth described,, and "plan of the section.," 

 accompany the text. 



