March 29, 1889.] 



SCIENCE. 



25J 



Bambeke, who have submitted the remains to a careful and thor- 

 ough examination, arrive at the conclusion that the man of Spy, 

 that of Neanderthal, and that of Canstadt were of the same race, 

 and possessed certain characteristic features which they consider 

 as pithecoid. The following figures are taken from the report of 

 these gentlemen, and show that there really exists a striking simi- 

 larity between the Neanderthal and the Spy skulls. The authors 

 sum up their researches on the anatomical character of the remains 

 as follows : " To sum up, we believe that we can advance the opin- 

 ion, founded solely on the anatomical character of the man of Spy, 

 that he possessed a greater number of pithecoid features than any 

 other human race. These features are the following : the super- 

 ciliary arches and the frontal sinus are strongly developed ; the 

 forehead is low and retreating ; the occipital prominence is large ; 

 the region of the chin is of very small size ; the marked prognath- 

 ism and the central elevation of the row of teeth, beginning at the 

 canine teeth ; the curvature of arm and leg ; the small size of the 

 tibia; and the bearing of the man when standing upright." The 

 authors add that these peculiarities are far more exaggerated in the 

 anthropoid apes than in the case of this man. The other features 

 of skull and body are entirely human. 



" Between the man of Spy and the ape there is still an enormous 



J. Ranke sums up the interesting history of this skull as follows: 

 " It is remarkable how rapidly and completely the views expressed 

 after the first discovery of the skull were refuted. Although w& 

 are unable to concur with Darwin's views, who called the Nean- 

 derthal skull well developed and capacious, the researches of Vir- 

 chow, Spengel, and others proved that the general form of the 

 cranium — chamsecephalic dolichocephalic — Jwas widely spread 

 in ancient and modern times in the region in which the skull was 

 found, but especially in Friesland. At the Anthropological Con- 

 gress of Brussels, Dr. Hamy maintained that he had seen in the 

 streets people with skulls of the same type. Other scientists had 

 seen similar shapes of skulls in various parts of Europe. Virchow 

 proved that a number of the peculiarities of the skull under dis- 

 cussion were due to pathological processes. At a young age the 

 Neanderthal man had been afflicted with rachitis : in old age he 

 had suffered from gout. The latter seems to have been very fre- 

 quent at this period, and may have been due to life in the damp 

 caves. Cave bears have been frequently a prey of the disease. 

 Besides this, traces of various lesions are found. Virchow sums 

 up his views, saying that the whole form must have been 

 modified by these pathological processes, which he describes iri 

 detail." 



!■ 3. Sll 



Cranium. (i-6 Na 



, Size.) 



gap. In comparing the race of the Neanderthal to those which 

 have made their appearance later on, — that of Cro-Magnon, the 

 race of Furfooz, the neolithic races, and those of the present time, 

 — we observe that the pithecoid features have diminished con- 

 stantly, and that they disappear one after another. Some of them 

 may still be found in one or the other of the lowest races : they 

 may re-appear by atavism individually among Europeans. It 

 might well be that such a feature could re-appear more promi- 

 nently than it does in the case of the man of Spy ; but the grand total 

 of so great a number of pithecoid features is impossible except in 

 the case of the most ancient race known up to this time. Besides 

 this, we believe we have shown that the Chellean man, the prede- 

 cessor of the man of Neanderthal and Spy, who led a nomadic life 

 without shelter and habitation, who chipped the paleolithic flints, 

 the contemporary of Elephas antiqmis and Rhinoceros Merckii, 

 is unknown to us so far as his anatomical character is concerned. 

 The manufacture of the pliocene stone implements of Monte- 

 aperto, of the upper miocene in Italy, of the upper miocene of the 

 Tagus valley in Portugal, are also unknown to us. 



" If the most ancient ethnic type that is known to us was capable 

 of assuming modifications during the quaternary sufficient to give 

 rise to races of as different a character as those of Cro-Magnon 

 and Furfooz, if during this period it could lose numerous inferior 

 features and gain others instead, it is not difficult to assume that 

 pliocene man was far inferior to the man of Spy. It is true, the 

 distance separating the man of Spy from the recent anthropoids is 

 enormous, but it is smaller between the same man and the Dryo- 

 pitheciis of the middle miocene of St. Gaudens ; but, on the other 

 hand, the ethnic type of the man of the lower quaternary had to be 

 modified considerably to assume the character of the present races, 

 if he really was their ancestor." 



Although the authors' views will not remain unchallenged, the 

 results of their thorough measurements are well worthy of a care- 

 ful consideration. But it will be well to remember the history of the 

 famous Neanderthal skull, which was, when first discovered, believed 

 to be much more pithecoid than the men of Spy are now described. 



Regarding another skull of the same age, that of Engis, which is 

 classed with the skull of Neanderthal, Huxley says that it might 

 well have been that of a great philosopher. 



These facts make us loath to accept unhesitatingly the views 

 expressed by the Belgian authors. Skulls are known from the Old 

 World as well as from the New World, which, if found in a posi- 

 tion suggesting old age, would be classed with these undoubtedly 

 early quaternary skulls. The figures reproduced above are un- 

 fortunately not orthogonal tracings, but outlines of photographs. 

 Orthogonal views make the crania appear considerably higher, as 

 may be seen from the following figure, showing the Neanderthal 



skull in solid lines as drawn by Huxley by means of the camera 

 lucida, while the broken line is a geometrical (orthogonal) projec- 

 tion made by Th. Lanzert. 



The fortunate find of Spy contributes materially to the final solu- 

 tion of the ethnic character of the early races of Europe, and is a 

 most welcome supplement to the finds of Neanderthal. 



Beans cultivated in Prehistoric Arizona. — A number 

 of years ago Mr. Wiitmarck expressed the opinion that our bean. 

 (Phaseolus vulgaris) was not a native of the Old World, as v/as 

 usually assumed, but that it was an American plant. This view^ 

 which was founded on finds made in Peruvian burials, was later on 

 confirmed by researches of Kornicke, Asa Gray, and Hammond 

 Trumbull. Recently Mr. Wittmarck has discovered seeds of the 

 bean among the excavations of the Hemenway expedition in 



