THE JAW OF THE PILTDOWN MAN 393 



from one glenoid cavity to the other was as great as in recent 

 Homo. ..." As a matter of fact, as we have just pointed out, 

 the skull of Eoanthropus must have been no less than 20 mm. 

 wider than in modern Homo ! 



He is no less unfortunate in his interpretation of the 

 temporal fossa, and in the inferences he draws from that 

 interpretation. " The anterior border of the (temporal) 

 muscle," he remarks, " appears to have extended upwards on 

 to the frontal with somewhat unusual abruptness, an impres- 

 sion that may be heightened by the way in which the bone 

 is broken." There is no room for doubt in this matter. The 

 anterior border of the muscle did extend upwards with 

 " unusual abruptness." The way in which the bone is 

 broken has nothing whatever to do with the matter. A line 

 drawn from the bregma to the external orbital process and 

 compared with a similar line drawn across any modern human 

 skull will at once demonstrate this point. But the abrupt 

 trend of this portion of the temporalis fossa is very closely 

 approached in many modern skulls of low races. What is 

 unusual about this arc is due in part to the lowness of the 

 cranial roof, and in part to the shortness of the frontal ; which 

 brings the coronal suture nearer to the upward limb of the arc 

 in question. The backward extension of this muscle Mr. Miller 

 has, I venture to think, underestimated, and he has failed also 

 to notice the peculiar sinuous curve of its superior border. 

 Furthermore, it is surely unfortunate to contrast the area of 

 this muscle with that of the great apes in relation to the size 

 of the animal ; such a comparison should surely be between 

 the size of the head in the two groups. But in any case he 

 is inaccurate as well as inopportune in his statements in regard 

 to this muscle in the great apes. According to him, in Simia, 

 or Pan as he prefers to call this genus, the temporal muscle 

 meets its fellow in the middle line in adult individuals. This 

 is true only of some males, belonging to some species, or sub- 

 species. But even here the comparison lacks point. The 

 muscle succeeds in reaching the middle line only because of 

 the small size of the brain-case, but that factor he leaves 

 entirely out of consideration. 



When he comes to treat of the area of insertion of this 

 muscle his distortions of fact could not well go further. The 

 form of the coronoid process and the ascending ramus of the 

 26 



