332 THE MARKINGS ON BONES FROM THE 



squamosal suture, we meet with ape-like characters, stamping 

 it as the most pithecoid of human crania yet discovered." It 

 has been suggested that this Neanderthal skull may have been 

 that of an idiot. There is not, however, the slightest reason 

 for any such hypothesis, and though the shape of the skull 

 is so remarkable, the brain appears to have been of con- 

 siderable size, and, indeed, is estimated by Professor Huxley 

 at about seventy-five cubic inches, which is the average 

 capacity of the Polynesian and Hottentot skulls. It must, 

 however, be admitted that though the antiquity of this 

 skull is no doubt great, there is no satisfactory proof that it 

 belonged to the period of the extinct mammalia. Moreover, 

 as Mr. Busk has already pointed out,* "we have yet to 

 determine whether the conformation in question be merely 

 an individual peculiarity, or a typical character." 



As regards the Engis skull, there seems no reason to 

 doubt that it really belonged to a man who was contempo- 

 raneous with the mammoth,, the cave-bear, and other extinct 

 mammalia, in which case, as Professor Huxley has well 

 pointed out,. " the first traces of the primordial stock whence 

 man has proceeded need no longer be sought, by those who 

 entertain any form of the doctrine of progressive develop- 

 ment, in the newest tertiaries ; but that they may be looked 

 for in an epoch more distant from the age of the Elephas pri- 

 mi genius than that is from us." 



Already M. Itesnoyersf has called attention to some 

 marks noticed by him on bones found in the upper pliocene 

 beds of St. Prest, and belonging to the Elephas meridionalis, 

 Rhinoceros leptorhinus, 'Hippopotamus major, several species of 

 deer (including the gigantic Megaceros carnutorum, Langel), 

 and two species of Bos. M. Desnoyers has examined a 

 considerable number of these bones, and he comes to the 

 conclusion "que les entailles, que les traces d'incisions, 



* Nat Hist. Rev. 1861, p. 172. f Compter Rendus. June 8, 1863. 



