THE NEANDERTHAL MAN. 45 



pelled all doubts concerning the nature of the Neanderthal 

 remains. We may say without fear of contradiction that 

 the discussion has passed the critical stage, and all an- 

 thropologists of reputation agree that we have here the 

 specimen of a primitive race whose forehead still preserves 

 the orbital ridges of lower animals, and the facial angle 

 of which is considerably lower than that of the lowest 

 negro type, being only slightly higher than that of an- 

 thropoid apes. The Neanderthal skull measures 62, the 



OCCIPUT OF THE NEANDERTHAL SKULL.* 

 After Schwalbe. 



two skeletons of Spy 57.5 and 67, while the highest apes 

 reach 56. The facial angle of the human race of to-day 

 averages from 80 to 85. 



While the forehead of the Neanderthal man is narrow 

 and low, the occiput is well developed, and though judg- 

 ing from his bones he must have been a strong creature 

 and presumably ferocious in fight, he may not have been 

 lacking in kindly sentiments, as indicated by the width 



1 On the right parietal bone we discover a cicatrized hole made by a pointed 

 instrument, which looks, as Virchow says, as if it were made by a " bayonet," or 

 " a sharp stone," or "any other pointed weapon," perhaps a lance, or an arrow. 

 It was healed during the lifetime of our subject. 



The occipital bone shows further a rough depression which Virchow suspected 

 to be the result of a disease, but anatomists (among them Recklinghausen) declare 

 that similar formations are not of unfrequent occurrence among normal skulls. 



The linea nuchea supremo, dextra is strongly marked. We notice further an 

 unusual development of those parts from which the neck muscles originate. 



