ON SOME FOSSIL REMAINS OF MAN 319 



constitutes one among several points of similarity between 

 the Neanderthal cranium and certain Australian skulls. 



Such are the two best known forms of human cranium, 

 which have been found in what may be fairly termed a 

 fossil state. Can either be shown to fill up or diminish, 

 to any appreciable extent, the structural interval which 

 exists between Man and the man-like apes ? Or, on the 

 other hand, does neither depart more widely from the 

 average structure of the human cranium, than normally 

 formed skulls of men are known to do at the present day ? 



It is impossible to form any opinion on these questions, 

 without some preliminary acquaintance with the. range 

 of variation exhibited by human structure in general 

 a subject which has been but imperfectly studied, while 

 even of what is known, my limits will necessarily allow 

 me to give only a very imperfect sketch. 



The student of anatomy is perfectly well aware that 

 there is not a single organ of the human body the struc- 

 ture of which does not vary, to a greater or less extent, 

 in different individuals. The skeleton varies in the pro- 

 portions, and even to a certain extent in the connexions, 

 of its constituent bones. The muscles which move the 

 bones vary largely in their attachments. The varieties in 

 the mode of distribution of the arteries are carefully classi- 

 fied, on account of the practical importance of a knowledge 

 of their shiftings to the surgeon. The characters of the 

 brain vary immensely, nothing being less constant than 

 the form and size of the cerebral hemispheres, and the 

 richness of the convolutions upon their surface, while 

 the most changeable structures of all in the human brain, 

 are exactly those on which the unwise attempt has been 

 made to base the distinctive characters of humanity, viz. 

 the posterior cornu of the lateral ventricle, the hippo- 

 campus minor, and the degree of projection of the posterior 

 lobe beyond the cerebellum. Finally, as all the world 

 knows, the hair and skin of human beings may present 

 the most extraordinary diversities in colour and in texture. 



So far as our present knowledge goes, the majority of 

 the structural varieties to which allusion is here made, 

 are individual. The ape-like arrangement of certain 

 muscles which is occasionally met with * in the white 



* See an excellent Essay by Mr. Church on the Myology of the 

 Orang, in the Natural History Review, for 1861. 



