dog's skull from the Roman colony of the neighbouring Heddersheim,
'Castrum Hadrianum', which is in no way distinguishable from the fossil
bones from the Frankish caves; it presents the same colour, and adheres
to the tongue just as they do; so that this character also, which, at a
former meeting of German naturalists at Bonn, gave rise to amusing
scenes between Buckland and Schmerling, is no longer of any value. In
disputed cases, therefore, the condition of the bone can scarcely
afford the means for determining with certainty whether it be fossil,
that is to say, whether it belong to geological antiquity or to the
historical period.'

"As we cannot now look upon the primitive world as representing a wholly
different condition of things, from which no transition exists to the
organic life of the present time, the designation of 'fossil', as
applied to 'a bone', has no longer the sense it conveyed in the time of
Cuvier. Sufficient grounds exist for the assumption that man coexisted
with the animals found in the 'diluvium'; and many a barbarous race
may, before all historical time, have disappeared, together with the
animals of the ancient world, whilst the races whose organization is
improved have continued the genus. The bones which form the subject of
this paper present characters which, although not decisive as regards a
geological epoch, are, nevertheless, such as indicate a very high
antiquity. It may also be remarked that, common as is the occurrence
of diluvial animal bones in the muddy deposits of caverns, such remains
have not hitherto been met with in the caves of the Neanderthal; and
that the bones, which were covered by a deposit of mud not more than
four or five feet thick, and without any protective covering of
stalagmite, have retained the greatest part of their organic substance.

"These circumstances might be adduced against the probability of a