258 ; Original Articles. | April, 
European mean, yet modern male German crania have been measured, 
which closely approach, and even sink below it. The possession of 
strong supra-orbital ridges, a low retreating forehead, and a diminished 
occipital convexity, is not therefore necessarily incompatible with an 
amount of brain space larger than that yielded by some modern Euro- 
pean crania (which such experienced craniologists as Huschke and 
Welcker looked upon as normal), if the space lost in the frontal and 
occipital regions is compensated for by increased growth in another 
direction. And in the Neanderthal skull this compensation appears 
to have been provided in the parietal region, which is nearly three- 
tenths of an inch wider than that given by Mr. Busk as the mean 
breadth of the European skull.* But the skull, No. 34, Edinburgh 
College of Surgeons’ Museum (Fig. 1), yields us still more striking 
testimony of the occasional co-existence even of enormous cranial 
capacity with projecting supra-orbital ridges, a low forehead, and 
diminished occipital convexity. Its capacity is 117 cubic inches, which 
is three cubic inches greater than that of the most capacious skull I can 
find recorded.t And like the Neanderthal, it has its greatest breadth 
close to the squamous suture, and not at the parietal eminences. 
The cast of the skull of King Robert the Bruce also, copies of which 
may be found in many museums, shows that that valiant and sagacious 
monarch had, along with a retreating forehead, a large and capacious 
cranium. 
From the comparison which has thus been instituted, I have no 
hesitation in saying that, although we may not be able to produce 
another skull possessing a combination of all those characters which 
are regarded as so distinctive of the Neanderthal skull, yet the 
examination of an extensive series of crania will show us that these 
characters are closely paralleled, not only in the crania of many 
savage races now existing, but even in those of modern European 
nations. 
How cautious, therefore, ought we to be in generalizing either as 
to the pithecoid affinities or psychical endowments of the man to 
whom it appertained. It is as yet but an isolated specimen; of its 
history prior to the day of its discovery, we are altogether ignorant ; 
its geological age even is quite uncertain. In coming to any conclu- 
sion, therefore, we have no facts to guide us, save those which are 
furnished by an examination of its structural characters. And what- 
ever marks of degradation these may exhibit, yet they are closely 
paralleled in the crania of some of the men, and women too, now 
living and moving in our midst. 
* «Med. Times and Gazette,’ April 12,1862. Mr. Busk places the mean 
breadth of European ecrania at 5°65. 
t+ The capacity of the largest cranium measured by Welcker was 114 cubic 
inches; that of the largest measured by Huschke, 109+75 cubic inches, 
