REVIEWS. 



110 



measurements in all cases must be referred," such base-line being drawn 

 through the centres of the basioccipital, basisphenoid, and presphenoid 

 bones respectively. Examples arc given of this mode of comparison. 



Professor Huxley, we think rightly, declines to decide whether the Engis 

 and Neanderthal skulls were more or less prognathous than the lower ex- 

 isting races of man, and turning to the Engis skull, he says, " I can find no 

 character in the remains of that cranium which, if it were a recent skull, 

 would give any trustworthy clue as to the race to which it might apper- 

 tain. 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 Australian. On the other hand, its measurements agree 

 equally well with those of some European skulls, and assuredly, there is 

 no mark of degradation about any part of its structure. It is, in fact, a 

 fair average human skull, which might have belonged to a philosopher, or 

 might have contained the thoughtless brains of a savage." 



" The case of the Neanderthal skull is very different. Under whatever 

 aspect we view this cranium, whether we regard its vertical depression, 

 the enormous thickness of its supraciliary ridge, its sloping occiput, or its 

 long and straight squamosal suture, we meet with apelike characters, 

 stamping it as the most pithecoid of human crania yet discovered. But 

 Professor Schaaff hausen states that the cranium, in its present condition, 

 holds 1033*21 cubic centimetres of water, or about 63 cubic inches, and as 

 the entire skull could hardly have held less than an additional 12 cubic 

 inches, its capacity may be estimated as about 75 cubic inches, which is 

 the average capacity given by Morton for Polynesian and Hottentot skulls. 

 So large a mass of brain as this would alone suggest that the pithecoid 

 tendencies, indicated by this skull, did not extend deep into the organiza- 

 tion, and this conclusion is borne out by the dimensions of the other bones 

 of the skeleton, given by Professor Schaaff hausen, which show that the 

 absolute height and relat ive proportions of the limbs were quite those of a 

 European of middle stature. The bones are indeed shorter, but this, and 

 the great development of the muscular ridges noted by Dr. Schaaffhausen 

 are characters to be expected in savages. The Patagonians, exposed with- 

 out shelter or protection to a climate possibly not very dissimilar from 

 that of Europe at the time during which the Neanderthal man lived, are 

 remarkable for the stoutness of their limb bones. In no sense, then, can 

 the Neanderthal bones be regarded as the remains of a human being inter- 

 mediate between man and the apes. At most, they demonstrate the ex- 

 istence of a man whose skull may be said to revert somewhat towards the 

 pithecoid type, just as a Carrier, or a Pouter, or a Tumbler, may some- 

 times put on the plumage of its primitive stock, the Columba livia. And 

 indeed, though truly the most pithecoid of known human skulls, the Nean- 

 derthal cranium is by no means so isolated as it appears to be at first, but 

 forms in reality the extreme term of a series leading gradually from it to 

 the highest and best developed of human crania. One the one hand, it is 

 closely approached by the flattened Australian skulls of which 1 have 

 spoken, from which other Australian forms lead us gradually up to skulls 

 having very much the type of the Engis cranium ; ami on the other hand, 

 it is even more closely alliued to the skulls of cm-tain ancient people who 

 inhabited Denmark during the ' stone period, 1 and were probably either 

 contemporaneous with or later than the makers of the 'refuse heaps' or 

 ' Kjokkenmoddings ' of that country. The correspondence between the 



