1. Hyæna spelæa, 25
2. Canis spelæus, 50
3. Felis spelæa, 25
4. Gulo spelæus, 30
5. Ursus priscus, 10
6. Ursus arctoideus, 60
7. Ursus spelæus, 800

The bones of small animals, mentioned by Esper, are now no longer met with; and, in the collections of Esper and Frischmann, Dr Goldfuss saw only a few dozen of the glutton (Gulo.) The contents of a peculiar conglomerate described by Esper, cannot now be determined. It consisted of a confused assemblage of very small bones, the fracture surfaces of which were fibrous, and contained also the thigh-bone and rib of a bird, which were conjectured to equal in size those of the eagle; hence Esper inferred that the mass was made up of the remains of reptile and fish bones.

No remains have hitherto been found in these caves; but in former times we are told that teeth of the elephant were found in the Zahnloch, and a vertebra, supposed, of a rhinoceros, in the Schneiderloch. The bones of domestic animals, such as deer, roes, foxes, and badgers, frequently found in the caves, shew, at a glance, that they have come into their present situation accidentally, at a modern period.

The cave at Mockas formerly contained in its deepest fissures, teeth and fragments of bones of bears, associated with rolled stones, and enveloped in earthy marl. The entrance to this cave is situated on the acclivity of a hill. Goldfuss ascended to the entrance of it by means of a rope, and found in its interior many narrow, wide extended hollows, which are generally so confined that we can only visit them by creeping. Here and there there are small widenings, and frequently narrow outlets occur in the roof.

The Zahnloch and the Schneiderloch, which also contain single bones of bears, are small vaults, with wide openings, into which we can penetrate without difficulty.

[437] The fact mentioned in the text brings to our recollection an interesting Memoir of Professor Walther, entitled, “On the Antiquity of diseases in Bones,” printed in Grasse and Walther’s Journal der Chirurgie und Augenheil Kunde, viii. From eleven specimens of bones of cave-bears found in the Caves of Sundwich, described by Walther, a proof is obtained, that the common forms of osseous diseases occur in them, just as they are observed at present in the human species, viz. necrosis, anchylosis, caries, exostosis, formation of new bony matter, thickening, thinning, and arthritic properties of diseased bones. Most of those diseases are such as would result from violent injuries, and the consequent very tedious organo-vital reaction. Such mechanical injuries would give rise to necrosis, caries, exostosis, &c. We can easily conceive, says Walther, how that the rapacious animals of a former world may have been exposed to violent mechanical injuries of their bodies, and of single parts of them. It is worthy of remark, that most of the diseased bones are of the lower jaw, the alveolar processes of it and the walls of single alveolæ. During the combats of the cave bears for their prey amongst themselves, or with other gigantic animals, the jaws and teeth must have experienced the greatest mechanical injuries. The necroses of the humeral bones are such as might result from a bruising of the bones, and the caries of the upper surface of the bodies of the lumbar vertebræ, may have been occasioned by external violence. Walther is also of opinion, that the cave-bears suffered from diseases of the bones not referrible to mechanical injuries. He remarks of a radius and a vertebra, whose arthritic condition he carefully describes, “These bones have experienced pathological changes, which could only arise from a long continued diseased condition of the nutritive process. They are very light, have an extremely thin crust, the greater part of their mass is of a spongy, very porous substance, and are uncommonly fragile. Such a change could not be produced by any external mechanical injury, nor by any slight action of the weather; but must proceed from a tedious constitutional disease, connected with a total change of the organo-forming plastic activity, and proceeding from a peculiar dyscrasia.” Hence it is probable, these cave-bears even suffered from gout, scrophula, and other similar diseases.

[438] According to Laugier, in 100 parts of the earth in which the bones in the caves of Gaylenreuth are imbedded, he found the following proportional quantity of constituent parts:

1. Lime, with a little magnesia, in the state of carbonate,32.0
2. Carbonic acid and moisture,24.0
3. Phosphate of lime,21.5
4. Animal matter and water,10.0
5. Alumina slightly coloured with manganese,4.0
6. Silica coloured with iron,4.0
7. Oxide of iron, probably combined with phosphoric acid,3.5
8. Loss,1.0
——
100.0

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