REMARKS ON THE CRO-MAGNON REMAINS. 123 



X. 



REMARKS ON THE HUMAN REMAINS FROM THE CAVE AT CRO-MAGNON*. 

 By M. DE QUATBEFAGES, Professor of Anthropology, Museum of Natural History, Paris. 



ENGAGED in other studies, I have made only a rapid examination of these spe- 

 cimens, and have nothing to add to the elaborate descriptions by MM. Broca and 

 Pruner-Bey ; hence I limit myself to some general reflections on these interesting 

 remains. 



These skulls afford another opportunity of instruction to anthropologists, 

 the importance of which can hardly be exaggerated. M. Joly has said that in 

 all populations we find both brachycephalic and dolichocephalic heads ; and he 

 has good reason for the statement as far as European peoples are concerned. 

 Has, then, this characteristic lost all its value ? No although no one can now 

 grant it to be of such impprtance as Retzius considered it when he divided all the 

 races on the globe into dolichocephalic and brachycephalic. We now know that 

 even amongst populations once regarded as most definitely characterized by one 

 or the other of these features, there are exceptional groups. The Andamanians, 

 for example, are positively Negroes, and positively brachycephalic, although until 

 lately we may have truly set down all Negro races as dolichocephalic. It follows 

 therefore that these cephalic conformations have not the value formerly attri- 

 buted to them ; there are, however, sufficient facts to enable us to affirm that they 

 have still a real importance in the characterization of the subdivisions of a 

 great race. 



We have before our eyes proofs that we must apply what I have been saying 

 to fossil Man. I am one of those who, taking account only of the best demon- 

 strated facts, have thought it very probable that Western Europe was peopled at 

 first by a small and brachycephalic race. With some limitations, and guided by 

 certain facts, I supposed it possible that populations existed in Europe presenting 

 the two cephalic types ; but I did not think that any fact authorized us to suppose 

 that the brachycephalic type had at so early an epoch reached Western Erance. 

 In presence of the bones before us it is evident that my opinion must be changed ; 

 and I do not hesitate to take the side of M. Broca, at least in that which con- 



* These remarks were spoken at the Meeting of Scientific Societies (Congress of Delegates) at the 

 Sorbonne, April 16, 1868. 



