Later no less than sixty fresh examples, corroborating Dr. Prunières’ discoveries, were found in the Baumes-Chaudes caves, and Broca in his turn reported the finding of three crania in the cave of _L’Homme Mort_, from which great pieces had been taken which had evidently not been lost by accident. From this time excavations and discoveries made under Dr. Prunières succeeded each other rapidly. In 1887 his collection contained 167 crania or fragments of crania, all perforated, 115 of which were picked up in the caves of Lozère, which are probably of more recent date, beneath the dolmens of the _devèzes_, as those vast plains given lip to pasturage are called. These dolmens, which were doubtless reserved for the burial of chiefs, often contain many valuable objects. Beneath one, for instance, were found fifteen beautiful darts of variegated flint, four polished boars’ tusks, some schist pendants, some shells cut into the shape of teeth, some bone and stone necklace beads, and, lastly, two small bronze beads. These last-named objects justify us in dating the dolmen from the Bronze epoch, when the use of bronze began to spread over the district, though it was still not generally employed. Attention once awakened, similar facts began to be announced from many different quarters. In the Neolithic caves of Marne were found skulls with rounded holes in them, pieces of skull such as are shown in Fig. 28, which were probably worn as amulets. M. de Baye has in his fine collection more than twenty examples of trepanation, one of which is shown in Fig. 80. In nearly every case the operation had been performed after death; three examples alone show it to have been done during life, and that the patient certainly survived, for the wound shows very evident signs of having healed, and the edges of the openings no longer bear the marks of the tool of the operator. On one of the three crania there were two wounds near each other, but they were quite separate, and were evidently not treated at the same time. [Illustration: 80.] Mesaticephalic skull, with wound which has been trepanned.