326 
Sir Arrnur Keita, I was already soon enabled to test the validity 
of the above considerations also by means of this new cranial 
type. Besides with the greatest courtesy Dr. Smirn WoopwarD gave 
me an opportunity to study the fossil skull itself in London. I feel 
prompted to express my great indebtedness to him also here. 
Through its flattening and very pronounced torus supra-orbitalis, 
and also through its large jaw, the Rhodesian skull makes at first 
sight the impression of a neandertalian. But a closer examination 
and study shows that the fossil skull from Rhodesia deviates in 
many respects from the neandertal type, and comes closer to that 
of Homo sapiens. Accordingly Smita Woopwarp *) considers the fossil 
African as a new species: Homo rhodesiensis, the accurate syste- 
matic place of which cannot be defined as yet. He does not think 
it impossible that this species is the stage of development following 
after that of the Neandertal Man in the ascending series. Krirn ®, 
on the other hand, sees in the Rhodesian a more primitive type than 
the Neandertal Man, which approaches the common ancestor of the 
latter and of Modern Man. 
In my opinion the resemblance to the neandertalian cranial type 
is Only superficial, and confined to the flattening and the torus for- 
mation, which may be explained by physiological, mechanical causes, 
combined with some characters in subordinate connection with these 
features. He belongs to the type of Homo sapiens, and has parti- 
cularly much in common with the Australian race. 
As an introduction to characterize the skull some of the principal 
dimensions (compare Fig. 5) may first be given.*) The glabella-inion 
line (the form of the broken of inion could be reconstructed with 
great accuracy), at the same time the maximum cranial length, 
measures 207 mm. (The maximum length of the La Chapelle skull 
is 208 mm.). The maximum cranial breadth is 145 mm. (in La 
Chapelle 156 mm.) The minimum frontal breadth is 104 mm. (as 
against 109 in La Chapelle). On the other hand the breadth of the 
torus is 139 mm. (as against 124 in La Chapelle). The basi-bregmatic 
1) Nature. Vol. 108. N°. 2716. November 17th, 1921, p. 371—372. 
*) Communicated in a letter. : 
3) 1 owe the design of the adjoined. norma sagittalis (Fig. 5) taken from 
the fossil skull, to Mr. W. P. Pycrart, M. R. Anthropological Institute. I drew 
some particulars of the norma lateralis in it according to measures and 
photos taken from the skull. The other norma sagittalis refers to the Australian 
skull N°. 792 of the Anatomical Collection of the Sydney University, described 
by A. St. N. Burkitt and J. I. HUNTER. It has been made after the tracing 
of the median sagittal section of the skull which I was allowed to compare 
with the fossil Rhodesian skull in London through Dr. HUNTER's kindness. 
