340 BUEEAU OF. AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 52 



In regard to the position of the nasion with relation to a horizontal 

 line connecting the uppermost parts of the superior orbital border, 

 Schwalbe finds that, first of all, its high situation is encountered 

 occasionalh^" in man; second, the point is located at various distances 

 below the line mentioned and on the whole lower than in man, in the 

 American apes; and third, it is also, notmthstanding Ameghino's 

 statements to the contrar}^, situated below that line (4 mm. as measured 

 on the cast) in the Diprothomo. In consequence, the feature can not 

 be regarded as a distinctive generic characteristic, separating the 

 Diprothomo from man. There has existed also a nasion depression. 

 The thickness of the interorbital part of the fragment compared mth 

 the biorbital breadth, shows itself to be well within the human varia- 

 tion and the inferior frontal construction is thoroughly human in type ; 

 finally, the greatest breadth of the skull was as usual in the parietal 

 region. 



"The fragment belongs to an entirely ordinary Homo sapiens and 

 is equal in all parts to the most recent skulls of man. Amegliino's 

 Diprothomo is to be stricken from the evolution-line leading to man." 

 Subsequent examination by Schwalbe on the cast of the skuU-cap only 

 confu'med aU the above observations. 



The only comment the present writer can make on the above by 

 Professor Schwalbe is that he agrees with every word ^vritten. 



Another critical reference to the Diprothomo is made by Friede- 

 mann, which appeared toward the end of 1910, in the Zeitschrift fur 

 Ethnologie} After giving the principal points from Amegliino's 

 report on the Diprothomo and after pointing out the discord that 

 exists between Ameghino and other observers in regard to the age of 

 the formations in which the fi'agments were discovered, Friedemann 

 says: "^Vlien Ameghino's data are tested critically there arises at 

 once the question as to the orientation of the specimen. . . . Ame- 

 ghino regards the callotte as it lies on the table, as 'naturally posed,' " 

 the specimen assuming in this way the characteristics which Ameghino 

 describes. When the fragment is properly elevated, ''a considerable 

 part of the given pithecoid features disappear;" . . . the naso- 

 frontal articulation '4s then directed forward no more than backward." 

 The nasion is situated (on the cast) 3 mm. beneath the horizontal 

 line connecting the uppermost planes of the border of the orbits. 



On the basis of the foregoing and other considerations Friedemann 

 reaches the result that for the present ''we are not justified to sec in 

 the Diprothomo a proof for the correctness of the opinions expressed 

 by Ameghino; it is much more possible to accept the probabiUty 

 that the skull-cap of the Diprothomo does not differ much from that of 

 recent man." 



' Friedemann, M., Vorlage eines Gipsabgusses des Schiideldaches von Diprothomo platensis Ameghino; 

 in Zdtschr.Jur Ethn., Berlin, 1910, Heft 6, pp. 929-935. 



