CHAP. v. BORREBY SKULL. 85 



which, according to Professor Schaaffhausen, had the precise propor 

 tions found in man, although they were much stouter than ordinary- 

 human bones, there could be no reason for ascribing this cranium 

 to anything but a man ; while the strength and development of the 

 muscular ridges of the limb-bones are characters in perfect accord 

 ance with those exhibited, in a minor degree, by the bones of such 

 hardy savages, exposed to a rigorous climate, as the Patagonians. 



1 The Neanderthal cranium has certainly not undergone compression, 

 and, in reply to the suggestion that the skull is that of an idiot, it 

 may be urged that the onus probandi lies with those who adopt the 

 hypothesis. Idiotcy is compatible with very various forms and ca 

 pacities of the cranium, but I know of none which present the least 

 resemblance to the Neanderthal skull ; and, furthermore, I shall pro 

 ceed to show that the latter manifests but an extreme degree of a 

 stage of degradation exhibited, as a natural condition, by the crania 

 of certain races of mankind. 



* Mr. Busk drew my attention, some time ago, to the resemblance 

 between some of the skulls taken from tumuli of the stone period at 

 Borreby in Denmark, of which Mr. Busk possesses numerous accurate 

 figures, and the Neanderthal cranium. One of the Borreby skulls 

 in particular (fig. 5, p. 86) has remarkably projecting superciliary 

 ridges, a retreating forehead, a low flattened vertex, and an occiput 

 which shelves upward and forward. But the skull is relatively higher 

 and broader, or more brachycephalic, the sagittal suture longer, 

 and the superciliary ridges less projecting, than in the Neanderthal 

 skull. Nevertheless, there is, without doubt, much resemblance in 

 character between the two skulls, a circumstance which is the 

 more interesting, since the other Borreby skulls have better fore 

 heads and less prominent superciliary ridges, and exhibit altogether 

 a higher conformation. 



; The Borreby skulls belong to the stone period of Denmark, and 

 the people to whom they appertained were probably either contem 

 poraneous with, or later than, the makers of the " refuse-heaps " of 

 that country. In other words, they were subsequent to the last great 

 physical changes of Europe, and were contemporaries of the urus 

 and bison, not of the Elephas primigenius, Rhinoceros tichorhinus, and 

 Hyaena spelcea. 



' Supposing for a moment, what is not proven, that the Neanderthal 

 skull belonged to a race allied to the Borreby people and was as 

 modern as they, it would be separated by as great a distance of time 

 as of anatomical character from the Engis skull, and the possibility of 

 its belonging to a distinct race from the latter might reasonably 

 appear to be greatly heightened. 



