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| Oct., 
NOTES AND CORRESPONDENCE. 
Additional Note on the Neanderthal Skull, By Wm. Turner, M.B. (London), 
F.R.S.E. 
In the April number of this Journal 
I discussed the anatomical charac- 
ters of the now well-known Nean- 
derthal skull, and advanced a num- 
ber of examples of modern British 
crania, which in the extent of their 
supra-orbital projection, in the re- 
treating nature of their frontal and 
diminished convexity of their occi- 
pital regions, presented forms closely 
comparable to that of the Neander- 
thal calvarium. Since the publica- 
tion of that article I have received 
a calvarium of a very remarkable 
form, which may serve as an addi- 
tional and striking illustration of 
the occasional appearance in Euro- 
pean crania of no great antiquity of 
characters not unlike those of the 
skull from the Neander valley. I 
am indebted for this specimen to 
the liberality of Dr. Arthur Mitchell, 
Assistant-Commissioner of Lunacy 
in Scotland, who informs me “that 
it was found many years ago, while 
digging the foundations of Gordon’s 
Hospital in Aberdeen, and that it 
was regarded, prized, and preserved 
from its peculiar form, but from the 
years which have elapsed since it 
was dug up, from the death of the 
finder, and the various hands into 
which it had subsequently passed, 
it is difficult to trace the exact con- 
ditions under which it was found.” 
I have since ascertained that Gor- 
don’s Hospital is built on the site 
of the Blackfriars Monastery, with 
which an extensive burial-ground 
seems to have been connected. It 
is probable, therefore, that the skull 
was obtained from a grave in this 
monastic necropolis. The calvarium 
is that of a male advanced in years. 
The sutures are ossified, the denti- 
culations of the sagittal and lamb- 
doidal are quite obliterated. The 
texture of the bones is very slightly 
affected; in the posterior part of 
the skull externally the diploe is 
partly exposed ; but in the anterior 
part externally, and the whole of 
the inner aspect, the surfaces of the 
two tables are smooth. The animal 
matter is not removed. ‘The bones 
are of average thickness. 
From the accompanying profile 
sketch of this calvarium (Fig. 1), on 
which the outline of the Neander- 
thal skull has been represented by 
the dotted line, a comparison of the 
two may be instituted. The supra- 
orbital projection, due to the size of 
the frontal sinuses and the retreat- 
ing forehead, are both well marked 
in the one from Aberdeen, though 
scarcely so pronounced as in the 
Neanderthal specimen. The verti- 
cal diameter is, however, greater, so 
that the former has not so flattened 
a form at the vertex as the latter. 
But in both crania the parieto-occi- 
pital regions slope downwards from 
the vertex, and the posterior parts 
of the parietal bones form an almost 
continuous curve with the squamous 
part of the occipital above the pro- 
tuberance and superior curved line. 
And in this its occipital form the 
Aberdeen skull approaches much 
more closely to the Neanderthal 
than does the old Batavian from 
the Island of Marken, cited by Pro- 
fessor Schaaffhausen, as presenting 
a great resemblance to it. For as 
Mr. Huxley has pointed out (‘ Natu- 
ral History Review,’ July, 1864, p. 
439), ‘if the glabello-occipital lines 
of the Dutch and Neanderthal speci- 
mens be made to coincide, the occi- 
put of the former projects back- 
wards beyond the superior curved 
