Notwithstanding Lyell's positive statement that there was no skull among the Lahr bones (which is probably correct) an opinion which M. Hamy confirms (C.A.P., 1889, p. 424) M. Primer Bey intimated in the course of discussion at the International Congress of Prehistoric archæology, held in Paris 1867 (Comptes rendus, p. 358), that he had seen the box of bones left by Boué with Cuvier, and that it contained a skull, which he thus describes :— "D'ailleurs, j'ai vu ces ossements et j'ai contemplé avec une attention particulière le crâne. C'est une crâne dolichocéphale et féminin, très-semblable à celui-ci qui provient de Vauréal, et à cet egard le grand homme avait raison ; c'est, en effet un crâne comme on en rencontre journellement."
On the other hand, Paul Broca, at the same meeting (p. 390), after severely reflecting on Cuvier's treatment of the Lahr bones, thus states his own opinion :— "L'analyse des circonstances qui précèdent nous permet done aujourd'hui d'accorder une grande confiance à la découverte de M. Ami Boué, et d'ajouter le crâne de Lahr à la liste des crânes dolichocéphales paléontologiques."
But this discrepancy matters little, the important point is that Sir Charles believed in Boué's interpretation of the facts. "Having now," he writes, "read the original memoirs of M. Boué, and corresponded with him on the subject, I have no hesitation in declaring my opinion that the conclusions at which he arrived are fully borne out by the facts." (Loc. cit. p. 532.)
Fossil Man of Denise.
On the 24th of November 1844, M. Aymard, the secretary of the Societé Academique of Le Puy, published (Bull. de la Societé Geo. de France) a notice of the discovery of human remains in a bed of lava or volcanic breccia in the Commune d'Espaly (Haute-Loire). The natural inference was that this fossil man was contemporary with the last volcanic eruption of the Velay. But various objections were raised against this interpretation of the facts, some saying that the man had fallen into a crevice, others that it was a forgery, etc. Among the human bones from this locality preserved in the Museum of Le Puy was a portion of the frontal bone, which is thus described by M. Sauvage (Rev. d'Anthropologie, 1872, p. 294) :— "La portion
