298 LECTURE X. 



we compare tliem witli those of the Neander skull. As to the 

 rest I agree with Professor Huxley^ who says : — " I confess 

 that 1 can find in the remains of the Engis skull no character, 

 which, if it were a recent skull, would give any trustworthy 

 clue to the race to which it might appertain. Its contours and 

 measurements agree very well with those of some Australian 

 skulls which I have examined ; and especially has it a tendency 

 towards that occipital flattening, to the great extent of which, 

 in some Australian skulls, I have alluded. But all Australian 

 skulls do not present this flattening, and the supraciliary ridge 

 of the Engis skull is quite unlike that of the typical Aus- 

 tralian. 



" On the other hand, its measurements agree equally well 

 with those of some European skulls." (According to Welcker's 

 table, there is not one European skull which, as regards the 

 proportion of length to breadth, can be compared with the 

 Engis skull.) " And assuredly there is no mark of degrada- 

 tion about any part of its structure. It is, in fact, a fair 

 average human skull, which might have belonged to a philo- 

 sopher, or might have contained the thoughtless brain of a 

 savage." 



From the materials at my command, I cannot altogether 

 agree with these last remarks of Huxley. The exceptional 

 length and narrowness of the cranium, with its slight elevation, 

 conditions a proportionately small internal capacity. It is the 

 projection of the approximated frontal eminences which makes 

 the forehead appear arched. But from these frontal protu- 

 berances the arched line to the vertex is rather flat, and conse- 

 quently the anterior lobes of the brain but little developed. 

 These proportions, however, concern only the individual deve- 

 lopment of the cerebral mass. The essential character for 

 determining the race lies in the proportion of the length to the 

 breadth, and in this respect the Engis skull is one of the most 

 ill-favoured, beast-like, and simious skulls we know of. In 

 Welcker^s list there are, no doubt, some veiy few (probably 

 belonging to females) exceptionally long skulls of Europeans, 

 which approach or even exceed the length of the Engis skull, 

 namely, one French, one Dutch, and two Finnish skulls. But 



