IN MODERN SCIENCE. 



163 



this is precisely the antithesis seen in the 

 American tribes, among whom art and taste 

 of various kinds, and much that is high and 

 spiritual even in thought, coexisted with bar- 

 barous modes of life and intense ferocity and 

 cruelty. The god and the devil were com- 

 bined in these races, but there was nothing 

 of the mere brute. 



Riviere remarks, with expressions of sur- 

 prise, the same contradictory points in the 

 Mentone skeleton. Its grand development 

 of brain-case and high facial angle — even 

 higher, apparently, than in most of these 

 ancient skulls — combined with other charac- 

 ters which indicate a low type and barbarous 

 modes of life. 



Another point which strikes us in reading 

 the descriptions, and which deserves the atten- 

 tion of those who have access to the skeletons, 

 is the indication which they seem to present 

 of an extreme longevity. The massive pro- 

 portions of the body, the great development 

 of the muscular processes, the extreme wear- 

 ing of the teeth among a people who pre- 

 dominantly lived on flesh and not on grain, 

 the obliteration of the sutures of the skull, 

 along with indications of slow ossification of 



