WHOLE VOL. SKELETAL REMAINS OF EARLY MAN HRDLICKA 267 



THE BRAIN 



The cranial capacity of the skull is calculated by Professor Boule 

 at 1,600-1,626 cc, which is above that of the other Neanderthal 

 crania and also above the average man of today. A cast of the endo- 

 cranial cavity of the La Chapelle skull shows a large brain, but low. 

 In general the brain was quite human, but showed numerous primitive 

 features. 



The morphologic characteristics of the brain of the man of La 

 Chapelle-aux-Saints are summarized thus by Boule and Anthony: * 



1. Characteristics distinctly human: Large absolute volume; pre- 

 dominance of the left hemisphere ; the presence of two presylvian 

 branches, and of a human system of opercula. 



2. Characteristics of simian nature, or intermediary between those 

 of the anthropoids and man. These are the more numerous and com- 

 prise the general form ; the general simplicity and gross aspect of 

 the convolutions ; the position and direction of the sylvian and rolan- 

 dic fissures ; the dififerentiation and length of the parieto-occipital fis- 

 sure ; the reduction of the frontal lobes, especially in their anterior 

 region ; the accentuation of the frontal beak or keel ; the primitive 

 character of the third frontal convolution which was probably devoid 

 of the basal part ; the presence of a much developed sulcus lunatus ; 

 the spread apart of the cerebellar hemispheres ; the width and exposi- 

 tion of the vermis ; and the direction of the medulla oblongata. 



" On the whole the brain of the fossil man of La Chapelle-aux 

 Saints is already a human brain by the abundance of its cerebral 

 matter. But this matter still lacks the higher organization which 

 characterizes that of present man." 



The writer feels that inferior characteristics of the brain may by 

 the above statements be somewhat overemphasized, and that most if 

 not all of them could individually be duplicated in the more primitive 

 brains of today. Nevertheless it is clear that while the brain of the 

 La Chapelle man was large its differentiation was not highly ad- 

 vanced, and the all-important proportion of gray and white matter 

 may have been quite different. 



THE REMAINS OF LA FERRASSIE 



" La Ferrassie " is the name of a rock-shelter close to a hamlet of 

 that name, near Bugue, Dordogne, France. The locality belongs to 

 the general region of the Vezere and Les Eyzies. In this rather 



' L'Antliropologic, Paris, Vol. 22, No. 2, p. i(>0, 191 1 ; see also Boule's Memoir. 



