128 THE HUMAN SKULL 



to ascertain the cubic capacity, because of the 

 imperfection of the remains. But the capacity of 

 a group of skulls belonging to the neolithic * 

 period in France, from the cavern of 1'Homme 

 Mort, in the Lozere, gives us as the following 

 measurements, which for the sake of contrasts 

 may be compared with the measurements made 

 of skulls of ninteenth century Parisians by the 

 same observer Broca : 



No. Men. No. Women. Difference 



1'Homme Mort ... 6 ... 1606 cc. ... 6 ... 150700. ... 9900. 

 Parisians (xix c.) ... 77 ... 155900.... 41 ... 133700. ... 22200. 



From these figures we learn two things : first, 

 that the modern Parisian skulls are actually smaller 

 in size than those of the persons who occupied 

 the same country at a very much earlier period, 

 which is a striking enough fact. In the next place, 

 they bring out the great difference in size which 

 exists between the skulls of men and women, one 

 of numerous secondary sexual differences, and one 

 of the most striking of these differences. Of course 

 to a great extent, almost entirely in fact, this 

 difference in cubic capacity between the two sexes 

 is accounted for by differences in stature ; but 

 when we consider that, so far as these figures can 



* Although these questions are more fully dealt with in a later 

 article the following note may be advisable at this point. Since we 

 know of the existence of early races of men almost exclusively 

 through the implements which they have left behind them, the 

 terminology is founded, in the first instance, on these implements, 

 and so we have a Stone Age, followed by a Bronze Age, and that 

 again succeeded by an Iron Age. The Stone Age is divided into 

 two or sometimes three main sub-divisions ; a palaeolithic or old 

 stone age, during which implements were rough-hewn and never 

 polished ; and a later, neolithic, or new stone age, during which 

 implements were sometimes, though not always, polished. 



