658 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SKULL AND BRAINS. 



alread}' referred, and the form of the cranial cavity is not more maslved 

 by this prominence in the Neanderthal than in many of the existing races. 



Although the Neanderthal skull is by no means complete, the base 

 of the cranium and the face bones being absent, still those parts of 

 the cranial wall are preserved that are specially related to the portion 

 of the brain which Subserves all the higher mental processes. It 

 includes the fi'ontal, parietal, and upper part of the occipital l)ones, 

 with parts of the roof of the orbits in front, and of the squamous 

 division of the temporal bones at the sides. On its inner or cranial 

 aspect there are markings by which the boundaries between the cere- 

 brum and the cerebellum can be determined. In a profile view of 

 such a specimen an inioglabellar line can he drawn which will corre- 

 spond very closely to the lower boundary of the cerebrum, and indi- 

 cate a horizontal plane above which the vaulted portion of the skull 

 must have contained nearly the whole of the cerebrum. 



Schwalbe^' has devised a series of measurements to illustrate what 

 he regards as essential differences between the Neanderthal skullcap 

 and the corresponding portion of the human skull. From the inio- 

 glabellar line another is drawn at right angles to the highest part of 

 the vault, and by comparing the length of these two lines we can 

 determine the length-height index. According to Schwalbe, this is 

 40.4 in the Neanderthal, while the mininuun in the human skull is i'2. 

 He further shows that the frontal portion of the vault, as represented 

 by a glabella-bregmatic line, forms a smaller angle with the base oi- 

 inioglabular line, and that a vertical line from the posterior end of 

 the frontal ])one (bregma) cuts the inioglabella farther back than in 

 the human subject. Professor King, of Galway, attached special 

 importance to the shape and proportions of the parietal l)ones, and 

 more particularly to the fact that their mesial borders are shorter than 

 the lower or temporal, whereas the reverse is the case in recent man. 

 This feature is ol)viously related to the defective expansion of tho 

 Neanderthal vault, and Professor Schwalbe also attributes consideral)l(' 

 signiticance to this pecularity. 



Another distinctive feature of the Neanderthal skull is the relation of 

 the orbits to the cranial wall. Schwalbe shows that its brain case takes 

 a much smaller share in the formation of the roof of the orbit than it 

 does in recent man, and King pointed out that a liiu^ from the anterior 

 inferior angle of the external orbital process of the frontal bone, drawn 

 at right angles to the inioglabellar line, passed in the Neanderthal in 

 front of the cranial cavity, whereas in man such a line would have a 

 considerable portion of the frontal part of the brain case anterior to it. 



From the combined results of these and other measurements, 

 Schwalbe arrives at the very important and interesting conclusion that 



«"Ueber die specitischen Merkmale des Neanderthalschiidels," Verhandl. der 

 anatomipchen Gesellschaft in Bonn, 190L 



