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POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
we have referred to writes to his brother that a deal of rubbish has been 
said on this subject — that of the chigoe — and he mentions, of his own 
experience, that “ during the past month there would be half-a-dozen at a 
time boring away and removed two or three times a day.” He must surely 
'be indeed “thick-skinned,” if he has had so much trouble with, these 
little pests, and has taken so little notice of them. However, we are aware 
that the chigoe is frequently an exceedingly annoying pest, and indeed is 
sometimes, if improperly extracted, the cause of extreme inflammation. 
NEW book, on an entirely new subject, is that which Professor Boyd 
Dawkins has given to the scientific world. We may at least style it 
new, for it certainly is a novel subject to the present generation of readers, 
at least fifty years having elapsed since Dr. Buckland gave to the world 
his well-known and clever treatise, “ Reliquiae Diluvianse.” But it must 
not be imagined that it is new to scientific men, although it is certainly so 
to the public, for for some years the labours of the author, of Mr. Pengelly, 
Dr. Keller, Mr. Evans, Sir John Lubbock, Professor Lartet, Mr. Christy, 
Professor Huxley, and Mr. Busk have all been more or less devoted to the 
working out of the history of the so-called bone-caves in this country and 
abroad. Now, however, the time had come, in the opinion of the author, 
for making known, in a work devoted to the subject in its widest sense, the 
history, mode of exploring, contents, and geological aspects of the most 
important explorations that have been made by himself and others, at 
home and abroad. And in working out this view of the subject the author 
has, in our opinion, done well, and has produced a volume which, in point 
of importance and of general interest, must hold a place between Keller’s 
u Lake Dwellings ” and Ly ell’s “Antiquity of Man.” We can but briefly 
state what has been the result achieved by the explorations which the 
author so well details. If further evidence were required than that ob- 
tained in America and Egypt of the antiquity of man, these bone-caves 
prove it beyond a possibility of doubt. But they prove more : they show 
us in great measure, taken with other evidence, what were the early races 
which lived in Europe and how they succeeded each other ; and further, 
they prove that the climate of Europe was then vastly colder than it is now, 
as, of course, it once was greatly warmer than at present. These are im- 
portant facts. 
In dealing with these subjects the author has gone in detail into descrip- 
tions of the various caverns in Britain and the Continent, nearly all of which 
he has himself been engaged in the exploration of. It is to be regretted, 
however, that he has obtained such very meagre information regarding the 
* “ Cave-hunting: Researches on the Evidence of Caves Respecting the . 
Early Inhabitants of Europe.” By W. Boyd Dawkins, M.A., E.R.S., F.G.S., 
Curator of the Museum and Lecturer on Geology in Owen’s College, Man- 
chester. London: Macmillan, 1874. 
CAVE-HUNTING.* 
