438 THE CRANIOLOGY OF MAN AND AiSTTHROPOID APES. 



higher than that of any anthropoid ape we are acquainted with." The 

 po8tor])ital index, or narrowing of the Java calvaria, is 19.8 as com- 

 pared witli an average index of existing Europeans of 12. In this 

 respect the Java skull comes nearer to the Neanderthal group than it 

 does to that of anthropoid apes; it also possesses indications of the 

 existence of that characteristically human feature, frontal eminenc(\s. 



In the employing of skulls which we believe to be the most reliable 

 test of human races, we classify them under three heads, according to 

 the measurements of their cranial indices; in other words, the meas- 

 urement of the greatest breadth of the cranium expressed in percent- 

 age of its greatest length is our guide as to the race to which an 

 individual belongs from a craniological point of view. When the 

 cranial index rises above 80 the head is called l)rachycephalic, a broad 

 head; when it falls below 75 the term dolichocephalic, or longhead, is 

 applied to it. Indices between 75 and 80 are characterized as meso- 

 cephalic, intermediate heads. Assuming the length of the cranium to 

 be loo, the width is expressed as a fraction of it, and is known in the 

 living su])]'ect as being the cephalic, and in the ])are skull as the cranial 

 index. For instance, if the greatest breadth of a skull is 152 mm. 

 and its length is 190 mm., we multiply the breadth (152) 1)y 100, and 

 divide the product b}^ its length (190), which gives us the cephalic 

 index 80. 



We have in our museum casts of two crania and other bones, form- 

 ing part of human skeletons which were found resting on a ridge of 

 calcareous rock overlooking the river Orneau, in the commune of Sp}', 

 Belgium. These remains were unearthed with great care, and there 

 is CA'ery reason to believe they were originally deposited Avhere they 

 were discovered, b(Mngcoveredover with four well-detined l)edsof dt'bris 

 and clay, in which were found the bones of the rhinoceros and the 

 mammoth, also Hint wc^apons of the Mousterian epoch.'' One of these 

 skulls has characters which resemble those of the higher apcvs, :uul 

 assimilate still more nearly to the flava skull, indicating the low tyi)e 

 of liuman being of which tins craniiun formed a part. Its foi-m, lik(^ 

 that of the other human inhabitants of Ein'ope as yet <lisc<)\ cred 

 ill (he cai'ly geological strata of the })i'eglacial or the interglacial 

 pei-iod, is of the long or dolichocei)halic type, its sutures are simple, 

 and for the most part are consolidated. We have another cast, pre- 

 sented to our museum by Professoi- Iluxley, one of our most talented 

 and earnest workers in the science of anthropology, taken from the 



''"The Brain cast of Pithecanthropus erectns," by E. Dubois, Journal of Anat. 

 and Phys., new series, vol. xiii. 



''Tlie most superficial layer was 9.5 meters thick, and was formed by debris which 

 had fallen from the rock above. The second layer was 8 meters thick, anil f(.)rnied 

 of yellow argillaceous tuffs. The third layer was (i meters thick, consisting of red 

 clay, in which were numerous Mousterian flints and the tusk of a mammoth. The 

 fourth was yellow calcareous clay, immediately i)cneath which the human remains 

 with bones of extinct animals were found. 



