554 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVIII. No. 461. 



cidedly dolichocephalic. The length of the 

 cranial cavity, however, was 157 mm. 

 and the breadth 121 mm. (an index of 

 77.07 and a difference of nearly 10 per 

 cent. ) , so that while from external measure- 

 ments the skull is distinctly dolichocephal- 

 ic, the proportions of its cavity are such 

 that it is mesatieephalic. It is probable 

 that many skulls owe their dolichocephalic 

 reputation simply to the prominence of 

 the glabella and supra-orbital ridges. An 

 excessive development of these structures 

 is also liable to give the erroneous impres- 

 sion of a retreating forehead. In the Aiis- 

 tralian skull just mentioned the thickness 

 of the cranial wall at the glabella was 22 

 mm. ; from this level upwards it grad- 

 ually thinned until 45 mm. above the gla- 

 bella it was only 6 mm. thick. When the 

 bisected skull was placed in the horizontal 

 position the anterior surface of the frontal 

 bone sloped from the glabella upwards and 

 distinctly backwards, while the posterior 

 or cerebral surface was inclined upwards 

 and forwards. In fact, the cranial cavity 

 in this region was separated from the lower 

 part of the forehead by a wedge-shaped 

 area having its apex upwards and its base 

 below at the glabella. 



The cranial wall opposite the glabella is 

 not appreciably thicker in the Neanderthal 

 calvaria than in the Australian skull to 

 which I have already referred, and the 

 form of the cranial cavity is not more 

 masked by this prominence in the Neander- 

 thal 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, stiU 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 frontal, parietal 

 and upper part of the occipital bones, 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 cerebrum and the 

 cerebellum can be determined. In a profile 

 view of such a specimen an inio-glabellar 

 line can be drawn which will correspond 

 very closely to the lower boundary of the 

 cerebrum, and indicate 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 meas- 

 urements to illustrate what he regards as 

 essential differences between the Neander- 

 thal skull-cap and the corresponding por- 

 tion 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 minimum in the 

 human skull is 52. He further shows that 

 the frontal portion of the vault, as repre- 

 sented by a glabellar-bregmatic line, forms 

 a smaller angle with the base or inio-gla- 

 bellar line, and that a vertical line from 

 the posterior end of the frontal bone (breg- 

 ma) cuts the inio-glabellar further back 

 than in the human subject. Professor 

 King, of Galway, attached special impor- 

 tance to the shape and proportions of the 

 parietal bones, and more particularly to 

 the fact that their mesial borders are shorter 

 than the lower or temporal, whereas the re- 

 verse is the case in recent man. This fea- 

 ture is obviously related to the defective 

 expansion of the Neanderthal vault, and 

 Professor Schwalbe also attributes con- 

 siderable significance to this peculiarity. 



Another distinctive feature of the Ne- 



* ' Ueber die speoifischen Merkmale dea Neander- 

 thalschadels,' Verhandl. der anatomischen Oesell- 

 schaft in Bonn, 1901. 



