PALEOLITHIC RACES 523 



loam, and when first exposed by the workmen who were 

 quarrying the limestone was probably complete. Unfortunately, 

 it suffered great injury from their hands, for they had, of 

 course, no conception of its value ; but by the opportune 

 intervention of Dr. Fuhlrott, the thigh bones, the upper bone 

 of each arm, shoulder-blade, collar-bone, some fragments of 

 ribs and, most precious of all, the skull-cap or brain-pan, 

 were rescued from destruction, and are now exhibited in the 

 University museum at Bonn. 



More than fifty years have elapsed since this momentous 

 discovery was made, and from that time to this it has continued 

 to occupy a foremost place in the investigations of anatomists. 

 When its discoverer first exhibited his specimens before a 

 meeting of German anthropologists at Bonn, doubts were 

 freely expressed as to their human character, and subsequently 

 the famous anatomist Virchow endeavoured to explain away 

 the remarkable features of the skull-cap by attributing them 

 to disease. Huxley, whose fame, notwithstanding his brilliance 

 as a writer, will always rest on his genius as an anatomist, 

 arrived at conclusions which we now perceive to have 

 made the closest approach to the truth. He recognised the 

 skull as truly human, but at the same time as the most 

 ape-like he had ever beheld, and placed it below the 

 Australian, which he regarded as its nearest existing repre- 

 sentative. 



So long, however, as this skull was the only one of its 

 kind, its testimony failed to produce complete conviction : its 

 age was open to question, for the fauna of Rhinoceros Merckii, 

 though occurring in a similar cave only 130 paces distant, 

 had not been found in actual association with the skeleton 

 itself. It might have belonged to an abnormal individual, 

 great as were the chances against such an accident, and, finally, 

 its completeness left something to be desired. Very welcome, 

 therefore, were the fresh discoveries which followed from 

 time to time down to 1905 ; these, while largely adding to 

 our knowledge, unite to confirm the judgment of Huxley 

 expressed in 1863. 



The material now accessible to study includes the 

 following: A lower jaw from La Naulette, found in 1866; 

 part of a lower jaw from Sipka, 1879; two nearly complete 

 skeletons from Spy, 1885; a lower jaw from Malarnaud, 1889; 



