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30 About the beginning of the second quarter of last century the Rev. J. MacEnery found flint implements, associated with bones and teeth of extinct animals, below a thick continuous sheet of stalagmite in Kent's Cavern. But the legitimate inference from these facts, viz. that man was contemporary with these animals and lived before the stalagmite was deposited, had found no acceptance, even among the scientists of the day. Further discoveries, confirming the truth of MacEnery's statements, were made in Kent's Cavern (1840) and described at a meeting of the British Association; but they were also discredited. It was not till 1865 that a majority of the Council became sufficiently convinced of the importance of the archæological remains found in Kent's Cavern to appoint a committee, with a money grant, for its complete excavation on scientific principles.

In 1829 Dr. Schmerling commenced his memorable researches in the caverns of the province of Liége. The evidence of man's antiquity revealed by his discoveries consisted of flint implements and remains of human skeletons, associated with bones of the hyæna, cave-bear, cave-lion, rhinoceros, mammoth and reindeer. An illustrated account of his discoveries was published in 1833–4, in which the author, in the most unequivocal language, contended for the contemporaneity of man with the extinct animals; but owing chiefly to the influence of the celebrated naturalist, Cuvier, his opinions did not