7186 
The skull consists of the frontal bone, the whole 
left parietal, a fragment of the right as well as a part 
of the left temporal bone, with the petrosa. The oc- 
cipital bone, the face, and the base of the skull, are 
lacking; but freshly broken surfaces indicate that the 
skull was complete, and that the missing fragments 
are lost. On this account, measurements according 
to the accepted,rules could not be given. 
I therefore sought for lines which would permit a 
comparative measurement with a modern skull. I 
joined the point of the upper edge of the orbit with 
that in which the parietal bones are connected at the 
end of their median suture, and from it drew a line 
perpendicular to the lower end of the mastoid process 
of the petrosa (see fig. 1). I did the same, also, to a 
normal skull, and ascertained by this means the great 
difference in the shape of the forehead, and the 
lowness of the skull arch. A measurement made in 
the same way, of the slope of the forehead in a nor- 
mal brachycephalic Bohemian, amounts to seventy- 
two degrees, while the skull from Podbaba measures 
fifty-six degrees. In a normal skull, the height of 
the crown above this horizontal line is 7.2 centime- 
tres; in the skull from Podbaba, 5.6 centimetres. The 
position of the outer opening of the ear may be recon- 
structed with some exactness by means of the chan- 
nel running diagonally across the temporal bone. A 
further remarkable characteristic of the skull is the 
very strongly developed eyebrows, which, in their 
Fig. 2. — THE SAME, TOP VIEW. 
inner half, are little inferior to the Neanderthal skull. 
A cross-section of the stoutest portion of the parietal 
bone shows that only the middle third is porous. 
The bone has nearly the same appearance as those of 
the diluvial mammals found in the same clay, com- 
monly considered fossil. A few small fragments of 
SCIENCE. 
t Fi 
Vets "ay 
7° 0 a 
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(Vox. IIL, No. 73. 
the bones of the extremities were obtained with the © 
skull, but their inter-relation would be difficult to — 
prove. 
Fig. 8.— THE SAME, FRONT VIEW. 
From the same clay a skeleton of a girl of the 
bronze age was recently brought to me, one hand still _- 
holding a bracelet, which had turned the distal end 
of the arm green. A few days later I obtained two 
nearly perfect skeletons of full-grown men from a 
neighboring lime-kiln. All these skeletons came from 
graves situated in the top layer of the loess and in 
the loam. All are typical dolichocephali, with beau- 
tifully arched foreheads. The bones are soft and 
fragile, and are at once distinguishable, on a glance, 
from the skull with low forehead found deep in the 
loess. 
After repeated visits to the locality, I succeeded in 
determining that it was in precisely this layer, two 
metres below the loam, that all the mammal remains 
obtained at this place had been found; viz., a tusk of 
a mammoth seventy-five centimetres long, two skulls 
of Rhinoceros tychorhinus, reindeer, and horse. 
Since this is the same level from which the human 
skull came, it may be considered as established be- 
yond doubt, that the mammoth, the rhinoceros, and 
man lived in Bohemia at the same period. 
As Iam no craniologist by profession, and am espe- 
cially occupied with other paleontological material, I 
think I act agreeably to all anthropologists in sending 
the skull for further examination to Professor Schaaf- 
hausen. This high authority, to whom I have 
already sent a plaster cast, declares it very interest- 
ing, and will be prepared shortly to report on it. 
PRIMITIVE COMMUNITIES. 
DuRING the year 1888 three books were published 
which were of so great importance in the early history 
of institutions, that it seems worth while to examine 
them with some care in their relation tg one another, 
in order to determine the precise extent and value 
of their contribution to this study. ‘These books are, 
Sir Henry Maine’s ‘Early law and custom,’ Mr. 
Frederic Seebohm’s ‘ English village community,’ and 
Mr. D. W. Ross’s ‘Early history of land-holding 
among the Germans.’ Sir Henry Maine’s book, be- 
ing a collection of essays of a considerable range of 
discussion, will be touched upon only incidentally: 
the other two, those of Mr.Ross and Mr. Seebohm, ~ 
