198 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANATOMICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL 



left femur, a critical examination of which has confirmed the position 

 cliiiim'd for the skull by its discoverer. 



The skull when viewed from above (Fig. 4), shows that the 

 sides converge towards a narrow part situated immediately behind 

 the enormous developed " brow ridges ". This narrowing of the skull 

 iu front, the so-called " post-orbital constriction," is characteristic of 

 low types of man, such as the natives of Australia, and of other fossil 

 human skulls, and is also present in the higher apes. It is dependent 

 partly upon the relatively small size of the frontal lobes of the brain 

 and partly upon the relatively great development of the anterior 

 portions of the temporal muscles and the prominence of the brow 

 ridges. 



Figs. 4 and 5. Skull of Pithecanthropus erectus. 



Viewed from the side the calvaria is seen to be remarkably low, 

 especially in the frontal region, where it will be noticed that the fore- 

 head is of the receding type, which is noticeable in Australian skulls 

 and which is seen also in the skulls of congenital idiots and cretins. 

 Posteriorly the skull is flattened, and the occipital bone is seen to rise 

 more vertically than in the skulls of living races ; the angle which it 

 forms with a line passing from the glabella to the opisthion, between 

 that found in the lower types of living man, and in the skulls of 

 Hylobates. 



Now, with regard to size, though the skull of " pithecanthropus 

 erect us" is distinctly small as compared with even the lowest races 



