Naturdi History.' ^Zoology. 400 
quantity of human skulls, which present marked differences 
with the European race, and which approach nearer the Coptic 
form. It is supposed that they have belonged to inhabitants of 
the primitive or antediluvian world. The most remarkable fea- 
ture of these skulls is, that they have no incisors, and present 
only grinding teeth, from which it is conjectured that they have 
belonged to a frugivorous race. , 
Observations of M. Blainville . — We have given this scientific 
news, such as it has been related in the public prints, with the 
view of drawing the attention of anatomists toward those skulls 
of great antiquity, and which occur pretty frequently. We are, 
however, very far from being assured that those of which we speak 
were truly fossil, since nothing is said of the place in which they 
were gathered. With regard to the absence of incisors, and 
even of canine teeth, as, according to the accounts received, 
there were only molares, if the fact be certain, it is more than 
probable that it was merely accidental. We think it more ra- 
tional to suppose that this case is analogous to the peculiar dis- 
position of the canine teeth, which seem to be wanting in the 
skulls of the Egyptian mummies, but which have only been worn 
down, as well as the incisors, as has been observed by M. Som- 
mering, and as I also have had an opportunity of seeing, in the 
beautiful heads of mummies brought home last year by M. Te- 
denat, son of the French vice-consul at Cairo. As these mum- 
mies have been freed, with singular felicity, not only of their 
envelopes, but also of all preservatory matter, and as all the 
parts of the face were in an excellent state of preservation, I 
shall here present the short description which I took of them. 
The skin of these mummy heads is as it were tanned ; the 
hair is well preserved ; it is short and curled ; it did not, how- 
ever, appear woolly. The skin, and all the parts of the face, 
are perfectly preserved, that is to say, the eyes, the ears, the 
lips, and even the tongue ; but the whole is black, or of a very 
deep brown. 
The head or skull seemed to me in general smaller than in the 
European race, and especially the forehead, which is really 
narrow ; the temporal fossae rather shallow ; the eyes large ; or 
rather, the margin of the eye-lids much extended ; the orbit, in 
fact, appeared to be greater in its lateral than in its vertical ex- 
