BLAKE — ON THE CRANIA OF ANCIENT RACES. 
207 
tiquity. The time required for the deposition of the four or five feet 
of mud in the cave might have been accomplished in a comparatively 
short space of time. It is not stated at what height in the deposit 
the bones were found. 
Dr. Schaufi'hausen's statement, that the bones adhere strongly 
to the tongue, although, as proved by the use of hydrochloric acid, 
the greatei' part of the cartilage is still retained in them, which ap- 
pears, however, to have undergone that transformation into gelatine 
which has been observed by Von Bibra in fossil bones," is hardly 
precise enough to convince practical geologists of the antiquity of 
the skull. But of the Engis cranium no such evidence is afforded 
us. It is hardly necessary to repeat the arguments made use of by 
Buclvland ac.'ainst Schmerlin^ at the meeting of German naturalists 
. . . 
at Bonn, which proved the less degree of gelatine in the fossil hyaena 
bones than in the human remains from the Belgian cave deposits. 
The condition of the Vale of the Trent skull, which has been appa- 
rently immersed in glue or some analogous liquid since its disinter- 
ment, has deprived us of the only chemical evidence which could 
have decided the question of its antiquity. Professor Huxley ad- 
mitted to his audience at the Royal Institution (Feb. 7, 1862) that, 
with respect to the Neanderthal cranium, " its great antiquity was 
not directly proved, although its date was undoubtedly very early."* 
Professor Huxley went on to say, that in the Museum of the College 
of Surgeons there are Australian skulls which closely correspond in 
configuration and development with those of the caverns of Engis 
and the jN'eanderthal, the difi*erences between which latter were 
" hardly greater than occurred between individuals of that race, 
while in form the ancient and Australian skulls presented many 
analogies." 
There are several suspicious circumstances connected with the 
Neanderthal cranium, e.g. the pathological enlargement of the coro- 
noid process of the left ulna, apparently from an injury during life; 
the peculiar rounded shape and abrupt curvature of the ribs, analo- 
gous in their appearance to those of a carnivorous animal ; Professor 
Schaufi'hausen supposes this malformation to arise from an unusually 
powerful development of the thoracic muscles. All these characters 
are compatible with the Neanderthal skeleton having belonged to 
some poor idiot or hermit, who died in the cave where his remains 
have been found. They are incompatible with the evidences which 
might be left in a Westphalian bone-cave of the reaiains of a normal 
healthy uninjured human being of the Homo sapiens of LinnjEUS. 
Enc/is {Belgium). — Pig. 3. — This skull, which was found by Dr. 
Schmerling in the year 1833 in a cave, with the cave bear, cave hysena, 
elephant, etc, and has since proved the teterrima causa helli of palaeon- 
tologists from the days of Buckland and Schmerling down to our own 
days, exhibits a t3^pe of cranium which, if attention had not been 
speciallycalled to it, as that of an alleged contemporary of the cave bear 
and mammoth, would have been the last to attract the attention of a 
* ' Medical Times,' Feb. 15, 18G2. 
