F0U1.1QN INTELLIGENCE. 



217 



relic, tli e latter lias made a detailed examination of it. . . . At present it is 

 sufficient to indicate the following genera] results : — M. de Quatrcfages is 

 convinced that the jaw discovered by M. Boucher de Perthes belongs 

 really to the bed in -which it was discovered. It is then a fossil, in the 

 general sense of the word. Geologists discuss still the age of these beds. 

 M. de Quatrefages, who is not a geologist, declines entering this part of 

 the question, and only occupies himself with the anthropological phase. 

 In this point of view, the characters of this jaw T have nothing remarkable. 

 The differences which separate it from analogous parts in existing races, 

 are less than those which can be noted between one and the other of the 

 latter. This jaw is not that of a negro, and it presents absolutely nothing 

 which would support the theory that would make man to be descended 

 from the ape by means of a progressive development." 



This communication appearing almost simultaneously, but irrespectively 

 of, the letter of Dr. Falconer to the ' Times ' which we printed in our last 

 number (p. 189), M. de Quatrefages returned again to the subject at the 

 next meeting of the Academy on the 27th of April, and, referring to the 

 doubts of l)r. Falconer and the English geologists, critically re-discussed 

 the circumstances and the grounds for these doubts, asserting that he 

 could find nothing in the latter that could withstand a profound examina- 

 tion. 



The only right thing which could be done under these circumstances has 

 been done. A congress of savants has been held to discuss and decide the 

 question. They first met at Paris, but transferred their assembly on the 

 11th of May to Abbeville itself. The congress consisted of M. Milne- 

 Edwards, member of the Institute, and senior member of the Faculty 

 of Sciences, to whom the presidency of the meeting was unanimously 

 awarded ; M. de Quatrefages, member of the Institute, and professor oP the 

 Museum of Natural History; M. E. Lartet, member of the Geological 

 Society of France ; M. E. Delesse, engineer of mines, and professor of 

 geology at the Normal School ; the Marquis de Yibray, member of the 

 Institute; M. E. Ilebert, professor of geology at Sorbonne ; M. J. Des- 

 noyers, member of the Institute, and Librarian of the Museum of Natural 

 History ; the Abbe Bourgeois, professor of geology at the College of Pont- 

 Levoy ; Dr. F. Garrigall, member of the Geological Society of France; 

 M. Albert Gaudry, naturalist at the Museum of Natural History ; M. J. 

 Delanoue, member of the Society of Antiquaries of France ; M. Alphonse 

 Milne-Edwards ; Dr. Falconer, Fellow of the Koyal Society, and of the 

 Geological Society of London ; Mr. Prestwich, Fellow of the .Royal Society 

 and of the Geological Society ; Professor Busk, Fellow of the Koyal and 

 other Societies ; Dr. Carpenter, Fellow of the lvoyal Society and Professor 

 of Physiology at University College, etc. The result of the inquiry was, 

 that the Congress admitted that Hie jaw found on the 28th of March, by 

 M. Boucher de Perthes, at Moulin-Quignon, is truly fossil; that it was 

 extracted by M. Boucher de Perthes himself from a virgin and undisturbed 

 bed ; and that the implements thai it had been supposed had been fabricated 

 by the workmen are incontestably ancient. 



The savants of both nations united in a deputation to convey the intel- 

 ligence, and to congratulate M. Boucher de Perthes. The Local newspaper, 

 the ' Abbevillois,' says: — "We cannot too highly applaud the scrupulous 

 care these eminent men have given to this interesting inquiry on a poinl so 

 important to our history, and confirming all thai tradition bells us of the 

 Biblical deluge, and of the existence of man at the epoch * lien thai great cata- 

 clysm altered the face of the earth. The English members of the commis- 

 sion, and we thank them for it. have shown a real devotion to science in 



VOL. VI. '2 V 



