258 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
times ophthalmic surgery had made considerable progress. 
The geological and mineralogical collection occupies a separate 
compartment, and should be studied before examining the geo- 
logy of the surrounding district. In this commimication we 
can only direct attention to some of the most remarkable mam- 
malian fossils, and to the localities from whence they came, 
which we learnt either from labels attached to them or from the 
curator. From the drifts of Denise and near Polignac have 
been obtained bones and teeth of the mammoth and Elephas 
primigenius ; from volcanic breccias near Solignac are remains 
of Elephas meridionalis and two species of Rhinoceros ( R . lepto- 
rhinus and megarhinus , with bones and horns of a great stag. 
From Vialette we find Mastodon Ronzoni , Rhinoceros etruscus, 
and Tapirus arvernensis. From Eonzon we find Cynodon 
velaunus (with huge carnivorous teeth) and Bothriodon. 
From the marls and clays of Mont Anis and Corneille are the 
Eocene forms of two Palseotheres. These specimens are in the 
galleries. The strata which yielded the Eocene relics also 
yielded the eggs of water birds, the remains of reptilia, with 
some freshwater shells, such as Lymnea and Paludi/na , and the 
valves of Gypris. M. Aymard, in a paper read by him before' 
the Scientific Congress of France at Le Puy, in 1855, fully re- 
cognized the lowest tertiary marls and clays of the basin of Le 
Puy to be of Eocene age, and he has also endeavoured to esta- 
blish a triple division of the tertiary strata, viz., Eocene, Mio- 
cene, and Pliocene, as well as Postpliocene breccias, and his 
views are most important from his acquaintance with all the 
localities in which the bones were found. It is to be regretted 
that a better arrangement is not adopted in the museum, for 
different groups of bones have evidently got intermixed, and many 
of the best specimens are without names or the localities where 
they were discovered. With regard to the celebrated fossil human 
bones of Denise, we were disappointed. In the first place, the 
bones looked too fresh. In the second place, they are described 
as occurring in 66 a block of breccia,” whereas they occur in a 
laminated sandy mass, with a mixture of lime. I have espe- 
cially directed attention, in “ Nature” (January 13, 1876), to 
an 66 iliac ” bone in the museum. It rests between stalagmitic 
layers, as if the bone had been washed into a fissure through 
which percolated water,, charged with lime. I shall endeavour 
now to direct attention to points which the geologist should 
visit in succession if he would become acquainted with the geo- 
logy of the district. 
Having seen the remains of glacial and northern animals in the 
museum, and learned that my friends Sir Wm. Cruise and Mr. 
Lucy had, on a former visit, detected drifts with angular frag- 
ments near Polignac, which might be the beds indicated by 
