MAN FROM THE FARTHEST PAST 
possibly in former times the floor of a cave. A section 
of a cave still exists behind the site of the discovery and 
was explored in 1911 by Duckworth, but without results. 
It is certain that the skull showed, and to some extent 
presents to this day, a hard stony matrix adhering to 
its surface and filling its cavities. Broca, to whom we 
owe the first descriptive account of the specimen, says 
that it was taken out from a ‘“‘very compact and adherent 
gangue” from which it was disengaged with much diffi- 
culty. The photographs published with Brocas account 
show very noticeable remnants of the stony matrix. 
The skull was presented to the Gibraltar Scientific 
Society by the then secretary, Lieutenant Flint, but for 
many years received no scientific attention. In 1862 
it came to England, with the collections from the Gi- 
braltar caves, and was studied to some extent by Busk 
and Falconer. The latter, perceiving how much it differed 
from recent human skulls, proposed to refer it to a dis- 
tinct variety of man, the Homo calpicus, after Calpe, 
the Roman name of Gibraltar. Finally, in 1868, Busk 
presented the cranium to the Museum of the British 
Royal College of Surgeons, where it 1s still preserved. 
The first descriptive account of the specimen was pub- 
lished, as mentioned above, by Broca, but the adhering 
stony matrix prevented at that time any attempt at 
accurate measurement. Subsequently it received atten- 
tion from Huxley, de Quatrefages, and Hamy, and later 
from Macnamara, Klaatsch, Schwalbe, Sollas, Sera, and 
Keith, as well as Hrdli¢ka. It is a very remarkable 
specimen, which, even though the geological and paleon- 
tological evidence relating to its antiquity is imperfect, 
does not allow for one moment any doubt as to its repre- 
senting an early form of human being; and its character- 
istics are such that it is now universally regarded as a 
representative, possibly a very early one, of Homo neander- 
thalensts. 
The cranium is gray-whitish to yellowish in color. It is 
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