154 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



From the foregoing results one is enabled to glean the interesting 

 information that the evolution of the maximum parietal breadth of 

 the skull has been practically stationary since the period of Piltdown 

 man, for it will be found that the dimensions of his skull in that direc- 

 tion are approximately the same as those of the average British skull 

 of to-day. It may be further noted that the maximum parietal 

 breadth of two ancient Egyptian skulls belonging to the Xllth dynasty, 

 measured by the writer^ was about that of the average modern Anglo- 

 Saxon skull. After all it must be recollected that the evolution of the 

 skull is entirely dependent upon the stage of progress made in the 

 development and growth of the enclosed brain. Therefore one 

 gathers from this fact that the brain must have chosen its main 

 evolutionary paths along directions other than those indicated above. 

 All this goes to show that the cephalic index of breadth taken by 

 itself, is no criterion of racial superiority or the reverse. In this 

 connection one may mention for example that the cephalic index of 

 the Neanderthal skull- which is 73-9 is very slightly different from 

 that of the modern Anglo-Saxon skull which is 76. 



A very different tale, however, is unfolded when we study the 

 progress made in the direction indicated by the line of minimum 

 post-frontal breadth, for one can readily recognise step by step a 

 very definite and progressive evolution of the brain and skull in this 

 region, which in the Piltdown skull amounted to 22-3 per cent and in 

 modern Melanesian and aboriginal Australian skulls to 7-4 per cent 

 above that of the Java skull. This unfavourable comparison of the 

 evolutionary progress of the modern Melanesian and aboriginal 

 Australian skull with that of Piltdown man, who is supposed to have 

 existed during the first half of the Pleistocene epoch, at once classes 

 the former as a lower type of skull than could have been imagined as 

 existing at the present day. However, such was the case; for the 

 above figure was confirmed as a fair average for Melanesian and 

 native Australian types of skull. In this connection I may mention 

 that the minimum post-orbital diameter of the Piltdown skull is 

 given by Smith Woodward as 112 mm., and I have found no modern 

 Anglo-Saxon skull in my collection that exceeded this measurement. 

 It is evident, then, from a study both of the minimum post-frontal 

 breadth and the maximum parietal breadth, that the evolution of the 

 latter dimension of the skull from the stage represented by the Java 

 man-ape has not been particularly striking, and that the evolution of 

 both dimensions has, moreover, been practically stationary since the 

 time of Piltdown man. It would appear from this fact that we must 



' Manchester University Museum Publication Mo. 68, 1910. 

 ^ Schwalbe, op. cit. 



