April 14, 1887] 



NA TURE 



565 



frontal is the great development of the superciliary arches, 

 tlthough slightly less prominent than those of the 

 Neanderthal and Eguisheim. The distance between their 

 r.uter extremities is no less than 122 mm., while the 

 arches converge at the very root of the nose, leaving 

 a slightly depressed intervening glabellar region, this 

 region differing perceptibly from that of the Neanderthal, 

 in which the glabella is prominent. 



Although otherwise well preserved, the under jaw of 

 No. r unfortunately lacks the condyles, which would have 

 enabled us to settle the important question of its relative 

 prognathism. This jaw is very high and massive, and 

 the well-preser\-ed teeth of both present the general 

 characters found amongst the New Caledonians and other 

 modern races of low type. The canines and incisors of 

 the under jaw are worn obliquely and outwardly, those 

 of the upper jaw obliquely and inwardly, although in 

 general to a less extent than amongst the Neolithic races. 

 The right femur of No. i is not large, but very strong 

 and heavy, and is specially remarkable for its typical 

 forward curvature. The great posterior development of 

 the articular surface of its condyles, taken in connection 

 with the general curvature of the body, shows that the 

 Spy men walked with the knees bent forward, the thigh 

 being obliquely curved forward and downward, and the 

 leg reversed backwards. In other words, the femur was 

 adjusted obliquely to the tibia, which was itself strong, 

 thick and heavy, but very short. 



The discoveries at Spy are specially valuable because 

 found associated with other remains which enable us to 

 determine approximately the epoch of analogous finds 

 elsewhere. The already mentioned fauna, as well as the 

 character of the coarse flints occurring in the same undis- 

 turbed strata, would seem to indicate that both the Spy 

 men, and their Canstadt and Neanderthal congeners, must 

 have flourished in the i!poque Moitstierieiitie of French 

 writers, that is, during the early period of the mammoth, 

 and long before the beginning of the Reindeer Age. They 

 were consequently more recent than the race of the 

 t'poquc Cheliemne, which was contemporary with Elephas 

 antiquus, but of which no actual remains, beyond the 

 objects of its industry, have yet been discovered. That 

 they belonged in any case to pre-Glacial times seems 

 evident from the remarkable absence of the reindeer, 

 which is not numerously met in West and Central Europe 

 till the Ice period. 



M. Fraipont's comparative study of these remains 

 makes it thus abundantly evident that they belong to the 

 Neanderthal type. The two skulls even serve as a sort 

 of missing link between the Neanderthal and the others 

 usually referred to the same race. This race, whose 

 presence in Europe during the early Mammoth Age has 

 now been clearly traced from Siasngenass in Scandinavia 

 to Olmo in Italy, seeins in a way to have been resuscitated 

 by the fortunate discovery in the limestone cave on the 

 banks of the Orneau. Their dry bones again assume 

 flesh and blood, and science is enabled confidently to 

 describe the men of Spy as a short, but far from "feeble 

 folk," thick-set, robust, walking knees foremost, and with 

 a figure somewhat analogous to that of the modern Lapps, 

 who also still waddle and are nearly all more or less 

 bandy-legged. Their broad shoulders supported a long, 

 narrow, and depressed head (different therefore from that 

 of the true Papuan, which is long, narrow, and high), with 

 very prominent superciliary arches, enormous orbits, low 

 and retreating brow, high and massive cheek-bones, 

 receding chin. No modern race, however low in the 

 scale of humanity, is collectively characterised by all 

 these traits, so that it may be safely affirmed that the 

 ethnical type of the men of the >Iammoth Age has 

 become practically extinct, either through further evolution 

 within itself, or by extirpation, or more probably by fusion 

 with men of a higher physical standard. 



It is noteworthy that the points which most separate 



the men of Spy from the present inhabitants of the globe 

 are precisely those which bring them into closer relation 

 with the anthropoid apes in general, rather than with any 

 particular species of anthropoids. These points, which 

 may thus fairly be described as pithecoid or simian, are 

 chiefly : the prominent superciliary arches, normal in the 

 young male gorilla and adult female orang : the extremely 

 low retreating frontal, constant in the chimpanzee of both 

 sexes and all ages ; the almost chinless receding lower 

 jaw, highly typical of gorilla and chimpanzee ; lastly, the 

 peculiar curvature of the femur, combined with its adjust- 

 ment to the tibia, suggesting in the vertical position an 

 attitude somewhat analogous to that of chimpanzee and 

 gorilla. On the other hand, all the other features of 

 cranium, trunk, and limbs are distinctly human, while the 

 cranial capacity alone would suffice to justify the claim 

 oi Ilfliiifl neanderthalensis to membership with the human 

 rather than with the simian family. However great the 

 distance separating him even from the lowest of modern 

 races, far greater, undoubtedly, is the interval between 

 him and the highest of the modern anthropoids. At the 

 same time this inter\-al becomes perceptibly diminished 

 by Gaudry's discoveiy of Dryopitheciis foiifann, an 

 anthropoid ape of the middle Miocene epoch certainly 

 less simian, or rather more human, than any of its present 

 congeners. Its lower jaw is perceptibly less receding than 

 that either of the gorilla, orang, or chimpanzee. The 

 interval tends to be still further reduced when we re- 

 member that, although the Homo iicandtftlialensis is the 

 earliest human type of which any bodily remains have 

 hitherto been discovered, there is a still more primitive 

 race revealed to us by the rude pala'olithic implements 

 frequently occurring in association with Elephas antiquus, 

 and in later Tertiary deposits considerably older than the 

 Lower (Quaternary of the Spy cave. Whenever any charac- 

 teristic remains of this primajval race come to light, a 

 distinct approach will have been made towards a solution 

 of the difficult questions connected with the genetic 

 descent of mankind. A. H. Keane 



AN EXAMINATION OF THE LEAVES OF 

 G YMNEMA S YL VES TRE ' 

 (^YMNEMA SYLVESTRE (R. Br.) is an asclepiad- 

 ^^ aceous plant growing in the Deccan peninsula, from 

 Concan to Travancore ; it is also met with in Assam, and 

 on the Coromandel coast, and is distributed in the con- 

 tinent of .Africa. It is a stout woody climber, with long 

 slender branches. 



The leaves are opposite, entire, froin li to 3 inches long, 

 and from i to 2 inches broad, elliptic or obovate, acute or 

 cuspidate, rarely cordate at the base, membranous, thinly 

 pubescent on both sides, the upper surface of a darker 

 green than the lower. Gyiuneiita syh'istrc is mentioned 

 in the non-official list in the Pharmacopoeia of India 

 (1868), and in Dr. Dymock's " .Materia Medica of Western 

 India." The powdered root has for a long time been 

 known among the Hindus as a remedy for snake-bites ; 

 in such cases it is applied locally to the part affected, and 

 also taken internally in the form of a decoction. But the 

 most curious circumstance connected with this plant was 

 first noticed by Mr. Edgeworth, who discovered that by 

 chewing some of the leaves it destroyed the power of the 

 tongue to appreciate the taste of sugar ; he fouiid that 

 powdered sugar, taken immediately after masticating 

 some of the leaves, tasted like so much sand in his 

 mouth, and this effect lasted for twenty-four hours. Dr. 

 Dymock. reviewing this property, said he was unable 

 en'tirelv to confirm this statement ; his experience was 

 that sugar taken into the mouth after chewing the fresh 

 plant had a saltish taste, but was still easily recognisable. 



■ A paper read at a meeting of the Nilgiri Natural History Sociely 

 Ootacamund, by David Hooper, F.C.S., March 7, 1887. 



