FOEETGX I>'TELLIQENCE. 
223 
dark matrix enveloping it (mangano-fennic^inous) was regarded on the one 
side as being natural, while on the other it was nrged 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 in 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 w£is tolerably firm under the jaw, 
and the fresh section afforded a distinct odour of sawn bone. The in- 
ternal can("ellated structure was of a faint bi-owuish tinge, and the cells 
free from any incrustation. The most remarkable appearance observable 
in the section was the 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 
fiiiig 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 JMr. 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 fiir, no point had been established to shake the confi- 
dence of the English members on the soundness of their doubts as to the 
authenticit}'^ of the flint hachcs 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 to, as dis- 
tinctive of genuine specimens of great antiquity ; the other four were 
identical in their general appearance with those which in the previous 
meetings of the conference they had considered to be unauthentic. If the 
former were adjudged to be authentic, the decision carried with it the 
latter which had been rejected. The evidence regarding the occurrence 
of the jaw in the ' black band ' was then considered, and it appeared to be 
supported by such direct testimony, that it was unanimously accepted by 
the commission. 
