1864. | Turner on the Fossil Skull Controversy. 257 
possession of greater bulk in this region in an individual skull—is not 
in itself a feature on which to base any specific distinction. As 
well might we attempt to draw specific characters from a greater or 
less development of the mastoid processes. To give anything like 
value to such a character, it ought to be shown to be possessed by the 
majority at least of the skulls of a given race Keeping in view, then, 
the amount of variation which this projection admits of in the crania 
of known races, and in the absence of any skulls cotemporaneous with 
the one from the Neanderthal with which to compare it, we should 
hesitate before expressing an opinion that it is an ethnical rather than 
an individual character. 
Amongst the various speculations which have been hazarded, as to 
the nature and mental capabilities of the man to whom this singular 
skull appertained, there is one expressed in the inquiry, “ But may 
he not have been an idiot?” In the absence of any definite in- 
formation, it is alike impossible to prove either that he was an 
idiot or a sane person. I have, however, compared the skull with 
the crania of three idiots, and find not only considerable diversities 
between its form and theirs, but in the form which the idiot cranium 
itself may present. In one of the idiot’s skulls the forehead is low and 
retreating, and the supra-orbital ridges are large, but the external 
measurements and internal capacity are so small as to place it amongst 
the microcephali. Now the Neanderthal skull cannot be regarded as 
microcephalic, either in its external measurement or internal capacity. 
It possesses an extreme length of 8 inches when measured from the 
glabella to the most projecting point of the occiput, and of 7-2 when 
the measurement is taken between the frontal eminences and the cor- 
responding occipital eminences, which latter diameter is of greater 
value than the former as an index of cranial capacity, because it 
eliminates the supra-orbital projection and frontal sinuses. Its greatest 
breadth is 5:9 inches. Its present capacity is 65 cubic inches; but 
its capacity in the original condition is estimated by Mr. Huxley at 
75 cubic inches, which is the average capacity given by Morton for 
Polynesian and Hottentot skulls. 
Amongst modern European crania, the average cranial capacity is 
considerably higher than this. Professor Welcker, of Halle,* from 
careful measurements of 80 normal, male, adult German crania, has 
placed the mean capacity at 884 cubic inches. But whilst the 
maximum of these crania rose as high as 109 cubic inches, the 
minimum sank as low as 74:4 cubic inches, a capacity scarcely so 
great as the estimate made of the Neanderthal skull ; and the capacity 
of two others was only 78 and 78:6 cubic inches. Again, Professor 
Huschke,} from the measurements of 21 male German crania, has 
found their average capacity to be 88°17 cubic inches; but the 
smallest of these skulls was no more than 73°1 cubic inches, which 
is nearly two cubic inches smaller than the Neanderthal skull. Thus 
though the estimated capacity of this cranium is less than the 
* © Untersuchungen ueber Wachsthum und Bau des Menschl. Schaedels,’ 1862, 
p. 30. 
+ Schaedel, Hirn, und Seele, 1854, p. 47. 
