FOSSIL MAN FROM LA MADELA1NE AND LATJGEEIE BASSE. 



261 



in which are set three incisors, two canines, two premolars, and a molar, more 

 or less deeply worn away, and reduced, by that rather uneven wear, to lengths 

 varying from 8-J millims. ( inch) for the molars to 7^ millims. (O29 inch) for 

 the incisors. 



We have said that the examination of the face furnishes little useful informa- 

 tion. One can only ascertain the inclination of the upper border of the orbit, the 

 middling breadth and great prominence of the nose, of which only fragments 

 remain, and the existence of a sharp edge in front of the nasal floor. The spina 

 nasalis anterior, quite broken, seen in the middle of that edge, is short ; the inter- 

 maxillary, which it surmounts, is not high, is but little prognathous, and is rela- 

 tively depressed at the place of insertion of the myrtiform muscles. The alveolus 

 of the canine tooth, which externally circumscribes this depression, is salient and 

 thick ; and the tooth which it lodges has a deep root, making its total length 

 23 millimetres (0-9 inch). 



The lower maxillary is enormous ; its horizontal ramus, extremely robust, and 

 of unknown thickness (imbedded as it is in a matrix from which it has not been 

 extracted), has nearly the height of " No. 1" from Cro-Magnon. There is still less 

 difference between the vertical dimensions of the symphysis (36 millims. or 1-4 

 inch) and of the molar region (34 millims. or 1-34 inch). The outer surface has 

 almost as much motion; but the mental fossso are shallower; the chin is less 

 massive and less pointed, although the alveolo-mental angle rises from 64 to 65. 

 The wear of the teeth is still more considerable than in the upper jaw : of the 

 molars a height of only 7 millims. (0'276 inch) above the alveolar border is left, 

 and only 4 millims. (O157 inch) of the incisors. 



The ascending ramus, high and broad, has its postero-inferior angle broken; 

 so that its transverse (41-42 millims. or 1'61-1*65 inch) cannot be compared with 

 its oblique diameter, which must have been rather less. The angle formed by the 

 two rami is nearly the same as that of the mandible " No. 1" from Cro-Magnon, as 

 it fluctuates between 108 and 110. The coronoid process is thick, flat, and rela- 

 tively short. The condyloid process and its neck are, unfortunately, still im- 

 bedded in the matrix, which conceals their forms. 



II. 



The bones which we have now described were not the first discovered at the 

 Station of Laugerie Basse. As early as 1869 M. Elie Masse"nat, in a brief notice 

 inserted in the 'Mate"riaux pour 1'Histoire Primitive,' proved the finding of a 



