314 ON SOME FOSSIL REMAINS OF MAN 



the great apes, owing to the very prominent supra-orbital 

 ridges, in the present case is rendered still more difficult 

 from the absence both of the auditory opening and of the 

 nasal spine. But if the proper horizontal position of the 

 skull be taken from the remaining portions of the orbital 

 plates, and the ascending line made to touch the surface of 

 the frontal bone behind the prominent supra-orbital ridges, 

 the facial angle is not found to exceed 56.* Unfortunately, 

 no portions of the facial bones, whose conformation is so 

 decisive as regards the form and expression of the head, 

 have been preserved. The cranial capacity, compared 

 with the uncommon strength of the corporeal frame, would 

 seem to indicate a small cerebral development. The skull, 

 as it is, holds about 31 ounces of millet-seed ; and as, from 

 the proportionate size of the wanting bones, the whole 

 cranial cavity should have about 6 ounces more added, the 

 contents, were it perfect, may be taken at 37 ounces. 

 Tiedemann assigns, as the cranial contents in the Negro, 

 40, 38, and 35 ounces. The cranium holds rather more 

 than 36 ounces of water, which corresponds to a capacity 

 of 1033.24 cubic centimetres. Huschke estimates the 

 cranial contents of a Negress at 1127 cubic centimetres; 

 of an old Negro at 1146 cubic centimetres. The capacity 

 of the Malay skulls, estimated by water, equalled 36, 33 

 ounces, whilst in the diminutive Hindoos it falls to as little 

 as 27 ounces." 



After comparing the Neanderthal cranium with many 

 others, ancient and modern, Professor Schaaffhausen con- 

 cludes thus : 



" But the human bones and cranium from the Nean- 

 derthal exceed all the rest in those peculiarities of confor- 

 mation which lead to the conclusion of their belonging 

 to a barbarous and savage race. Whether the cavern in 

 which they were found, unaccompanied with any trace of 

 human art, were the place of their interment, or whether, 

 like the bones of extinct animals elsewhere, they had been 

 washed into it, they may still be regarded as the 

 most ancient memorial of the early Inhabitants of 

 Europe." 



Mr. Busk, the translator of Dr. SchaafThausen's paper, 

 has enabled us to form a very vivid conception of the 

 degraded character of the Neanderthal skull, by placing 



* Estimating the facial angle in the way suggested, on the cast I 

 hould place it at 64 to 67. G. B. 



