CRO-MAGNON SKULLS AND BONES. 113 



b. The Facial Region. The skull " No. 3 " has lost all its facial region ; but we can still get some 

 indications of the state of the lower edge of the os frontix. The superciliary arches are very much 

 developed, the glabella rather less so ; below it the frontal retreats markedly, and shows that the root of 

 the nose was rather strongly depressed. The outer orbital processes are 112 millims. (4-410 inches) apart, 

 indicating that the face was very large. 



The face of the Old Man presents quite unusual characters. The disproportion of height and width 

 strikes us at once ; the face seems at once very short and very broad ; but when we take the compasses we 

 find that the face is not really short, but appears so only in contrast with its great breadth ; and the very 

 sudden and considerable contraction just below the lower edge of the malar bono makes this still more 

 apparent. The alveolar region, indeed, is not broader than in an ordinary man ; hence the cheek-bones 

 just above are excessively prominent. 



The distance between the root of the nose and the spina nasi, or the height of the orbito-nasal region, 

 is 51 millimetres ; and this agrees with the average of ordinary men's skulls ; but I have never seen a 

 corresponding transverse development in dolichocephalic heads ; and it is altogether exceptional, even in 

 the largest brachycephalic skulls. Thus the bizygomatic diameter reaches 143 millims.; and among one 

 hundred and twenty-three brachycephalic crania which I have measured there is but one (No. 11 of 

 St.-Jean-de-Luz) in which the diameter amounts to 144 millims. ; whilst in all the others it is 140 millims. 

 or less. So also the distance between the two suborbital foramina is 63 millims. in the Old Man, and none 

 of the other skulls I have measured show a greater distance than 62 millims. 



In establishing the proportion of the height of the orbito-alveolar region to its breadth, represented 

 by the bizygomatic diameter, we find it as 35-6 : 100. I have made the same calculation for all the 

 skulls of the Basque series of St.-Jean-de-Luz, in which brachycephalics largely predominate. In none of 

 these fifty-seven Basque skulls is the proportion less than 36; it often rises beyond 39, and may attain 

 40 and more ; and its mean is 38-3. Hence we may comprehend why the face of the Old Man of Cro- 

 Magnon, though of the ordinary height, seems so very low, namely, owing to its great breadth. 



This extraordinary breadth is due exclusively to the transverse development of the orbits; for the 

 breadth of the nose, of the interorbital space, and of the lower part of the nostrils is not above the general 

 average, and is even below the mean of male skulls. 



The disposition and dimensions of the orbits certainly constitute one of the most remarkable characters 

 of the face of the Old Man. They have a very long rectangular shape, with the corners rounded, and with 

 the bases inclined from above downward and from within outward. They are 44 millims. broad and 

 27 millims. high (C. Plate I.). For comparison with these I will cite some measurements from a register 

 of 250 European crania. Only one skull (Basque of Zaraus, No. 23) gives an orbital width of 44 millims. 

 Five others have a width of 43 ; and all the rest have less. The orbits, then, of this Cro-Magnon skull 

 attain the maximum limit of width ; but, on the contrary, their height is almost at the minimum limit ; 

 for I know of only one skull (No. 5 of the Second Merovingian Series of CheUes) in which the height of the 

 orbit is so little as 26 millims. In three others it is 27 millims., as in the Old Man's skull ; and it is 

 remarkable that these three come also from the Merovingian Sepultures at Chelles ; it is there only that 1 

 have found orbits comparable with those of " No. 1 " from Cro-Magnon (that is to say, at once very broad 

 and deep), three of the four Merovingian skulls cited above having the orbital width of 42, 42, and 41 millims. 

 respectively. 



In working by percentage to obtain the Orbital Index, I find that, the transverse diameter of the orbit in 

 the Old Man being represented by 100, the vertical is only 61-36, the lowest I have met with. That of 

 No. 5 of the Second Merovingian Series is scarcely higher (61-90). Two other Merovingians give 64-28 



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