588 THE NEANDERTHAL SKULL 
building theories upon these variations of human structure, as in ignor- 
ing them when they are obvious. Let them be noted and estimated 
at their just weight—the future will tell us their meaning. 
To sum up the result of a careful study of the extant materials so 
far as they are accessible to me, and of all that has been written on 
the subject, I think it may be said :-— 
That the Neanderthal skull exhibits the lowest type of human 
cranium at present known, so far as it presents certain pithecoid char- 
acters in a more exaggerated form than any other ; but that, inasmuch 
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Represents the same objects as Fig. 2, viewed from above; scale the same. aa. as before. 
as a complete series of gradations can be found, among recent human 
skulls, between it and the best developed forms, there is no ground for 
separating its possessor specifically, still less generically, from Homo 
sapiens. At present, we have no sufficient warranty for declaring it to 
be either the type of a distinct race, or a member of any existing one ; 
nor do the anatomical characters of the skull justify any conclusion as 
to the age to which it belongs. 
It seems difficult to believe that there now remains very much more 
to be said about the Neanderthal man’s skull ; but we owe to Professor 
Schaafhausen some interesting information respecting his brain. 
