156 ORIGINAL ARTICLES. 



about 15 feet deep from the entrance, which is 7 or 8 feet wide, exists 

 in the southern wall of the gorge of the Neanderthal, as it is termed, 

 at a distance of about 100 feet from the Diissel, and about 60 feet 

 above the bottom of the valley. In its earlier and uninjured condition, 

 this cavern opened upon a narrow plateau lying in front of it, and from 

 which the rocky wall descended almost perpendicularly into the river. 

 It could be reached, though with difficulty, from above. The uneven floor 

 was covered to a thickness of 4 or 5 feet with a deposit of mud, sparingly 

 intermixed with rounded fragments of chert. In the removing of this 

 deposit, the bones were discovered. The skull was first noticed, placed 

 nearest to the entrance of the cavern ; and further in, the other bones, 

 lying in the same horizontal plane. Of this I was assured in the most 

 positive terms by two labourers who were employed to clear out the 

 grotto, and who were questioned by me on the spot. At first no idea 

 was entertained of the bones being human ; and it was not till several 

 weeks after their discovery that they were recognised as such by me, 

 and placed in security. But, as the importance of the discovery was 

 not at the time perceived, the labourers were very careless in the col- 

 lecting, and secured chiefly only the larger bones ; and to this circum- 

 stance it may be attributed that fragments merely of the probably per- 

 fect skeleton came into my possession." 



My anatomical examination of these bones afforded the following 

 results : — 



The cranium is of unusual size, and of a long-elliptical form. A 

 most remarkable peculiarity is at once obvious in the extraordinary de- 

 velopment of the frontal sinuses, owing to which the superciliary ridges, 

 which coalesce completely in the middle, are rendered so prominent, that 

 the frontal bone exhibits a considerable hollow or depression above, or 

 rather behind them, whilst a deep depression is also formed in the situ- 

 ation of the root of the nose. The forehead is narrow and low, though the 

 middle and hinder portions of the cranial arch are well developed. Un- 

 fortunately, the fragment of the skull that has been preserved consists 

 only of the portion situated above the roof of the orbits and the superior 

 occipital ridges, which are greatly developed, and almost conjoined so 

 as to form a horizontal eminence. It includes almost the whole of the 

 frontal bone, both parietals, a small part of the squamous and the upper- 

 third of the occipital. The recently fractured surfaces show that the 

 skull was broken at the time of its disinterment. The cavity holds 

 16,876 grains of water, whence its cubical contents may be estimated 

 at 57.64 inches, or 1033.24 cubic centimetres. In making this estima- 

 tion, the water is supposed to stand on a level with the orbital plate of 

 the frontal, with the deepest notch in the squamous margin of the pa- 

 rietal, and with the superior semicircular ridges of the occipital. Esti- 

 mated in dried millet-seed, the contents equalled 31 ounces, Prussian 

 Apothecaries' weight. The semicircular line indicating the upper boun- 

 dary of the attachment of the temporal muscle, though not very strongly 

 marked, ascends nevertheless to more than half the height of the parietal 



