534 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
teeth.” This deposit he did not find upon the porcine relics at the Wrekin, 
but he fancied, at first, that he detected it upon the teeth of the fossil bovine 
remains in Ireland. However, after examining the latter more carefully, 
he noticed a ferruginous deposit from the peat, which might easily be mis- 
taken for the incrustation of brown tartar. “ In the one case there would be 
traces of parasitic life under the microscope — not so in the other case. 
The incrustation from the peat covered the whole tooth, at least as much 
of it as was not of the bony alveolus ; whereas the tartar incrustation was 
only upon that portion of the tooth that had not been imbedded in the 
gum. The latter was conspicuously present in sundry teeth of Megaceros 
hibernicus and of Germs elaphus .” We presume that for this reason Mr. 
Blyth regards these species as belonging to the category of domesticated 
animals, but we wish the evidence was a little more convincing. — Vide 
Dublin Quarterly Journal of Science, No. xiv., p. 150. 
Revival of the Neanderthal Skull Controversy . — We had almost thought 
that everything that could be said upon the subject of the Neanderthal 
skull had been said in extenso already ; but we were wrong. Mr. Carter 
Blake has opened the case again. In the last number of the Anthropological 
Review we find an article from his pen, in which he treats in a remarkably 
hazy manner of the views of other writers, and concludes by the expression 
of an opinion, the exact nature of which is by no means clear, but which 
seems to be a jumbled commixture of his own idea and the very peculiar 
speculations of Mr. William King. 
Contemporaneity of Man and Ursus spelceus. — MM. Garrigou and Filhol 
consider that their recent inquiries have proved that man and the cave bear 
were contemporaries. This they believe is established by the discovery 
of bones which have been split along their length for the purpose of ex- 
tracting the marrow : this habit was much in vogue among the first 
races of man, and is even still practised by such tribes as the Lap- 
landers and Esquimaux. The aspect and form of the incisions are 
peculiar. When the section of the bone is of ancient date it presents 
the same coloration as the rest of the surface, and is frequently covered 
with the same matrix. When it has been produced in removing the bone 
from its place of deposit, the section has a far whiter and fresher colour 
than the general surface. The sections themselves have a wonderful 
uniformity in regard to the direction in which they have been made — 
they are almost invariably continued in a single right line. The heads 
of the long bones are always entire, the diaphysis being opened longitu- 
dinally, and attached in longer or shorter fragments to the heads. The 
short bones (vertebrae and phalanges) are usually found divided into two 
nearly equal parts. — Vide Comptes Rendus , May 16th. 
Fossil Shells from Thibet. — A number of these have been sent over to 
Paris by M. T. Desmazures. They were discovered at a place called Kou- 
Chow, about twenty leagues south-west of Patang. They were observed 
in the pebbles forming the bed of the river, and which are employed by 
the natives in the cure of stomach diseases. M. Guyerdet, to whom 
they were sent for identification, has pronounced them to belong to the 
species of Terebratula , T. cuboides , T. reticularis , and T. pugnus . — Vide 
Comptes Rendus , May 9th. 
