FOItETQN INTELLIGENCE. 



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dark matrix enveloping it (mangano-ferruginous) was regarded on the one 

 side as being natural, while on the other it was urged that it might have 

 been laid on artificially. The jaw was carefully sawn across by Mr. Busk, 

 and the section so conducted as to include a portion of one of the fangs of 

 the solitary tooth. The black coating was washed off readily by means of 

 a sponge, and the residuary spots in the minute hollows were removed by 

 the aid of a tooth-brush. The general colour of the washed surface was 

 a light buff, mottled with brown stains. The outer surface was tolerably 

 smooth, presenting little indication of the superficial erosion commonly 

 seen iu old buried bones. There was no appearance of dendritic patches 

 either on the exterior or within, and no infiltration of metallic matter. 

 The substance of the bone was dry and friable, especially towards the 

 alveolar border; but, on the whole, it was tolerably firm under the jaw, 

 and the fresh section afforded a distinct odour of sawn bone. The in- 

 ternal cancellated structure was of a faint brownish tinge, and the cells 

 free from any incrustation. The most remarkable appearance observable 

 in the section wasthe lining of the dental canal with a thin layer of fine 

 grey sand, free from admixture with the black metallic matrix which 

 blocked up the orifice of the canal below the condyle. The section of the 

 fang showed that the dentine, so far as exposed, was white, and in no re- 

 spect different from that of a recent tooth. The enamel was white and 

 brilliant. The socket towards the upper part was not completely filled by 

 the fang, and the interval was partially occupied by black matrix and 

 sandy particles. The above descriptive remarks are extracted from the 

 notes of Mr. Busk. The commission was too pressed for time to wait for 

 a chemical analysis. 



"Here terminated the labours of the commission at Paris on the 11th 

 inst., and, so far, no point had been established to shake the confi- 

 dence of the English members on the soundness of their doubts as to the 

 authenticity of the flint haches and of tjie human jaw. Two, at least, of 

 the four French members frankly and openly admitted the effect which 

 the evidence yielded by the section of the latter had produced on their 

 views ; and had the inquisition been carried no further, it is probable that 

 the result would have been a verdict of ' not proven.' But, happily for 

 the interests of truth, the President, M. Milne-Edwards, had, after the 

 close of the second seance, proposed that the commission should visit 

 Abbeville* to examine on the spot the evidence as to the gisement in which 

 the haches and the jaw were asserted to have been found. From the mo- 

 ment when the commission got to Abbeville, the whole aspect of the case 

 was changed. A party of sixteen workmen were employed from 7 a.m. 

 to 5 p.m. with pickaxes, under the closest inspection, to cut into the un- 

 disturbed body of the section, and during the course of the day five flint 

 haches were discovered in situ under circumstances which made it impos- 

 sible to doubt the authenticity of their natural position in the cliff. I was 

 an eye-witness, with many others, to the disengagement of two. And 

 what struck the English members with especial force was, that of these 

 five haches only one presented the characters which they held t>>. as dis- 

 tinctive of genuine specimens of great antiquity; the other Jour were 

 identical in their general appearance with those which in the previous 

 meetings of the conference they had considered to ho unauthentic. If the 

 former were adjudged to be authentic, the decision carried with it the 

 latter which had been rejected. The evidence 1 regarding the occurrence 

 of the jaw in the 1 black band ' was then considered, and it appeared to be 

 supported by such direct testimony, thai it was unanimously accepted by 

 the commission. 



