530 
PROFESSOR OWEN’S DESCRIPTION OF THE CAVERN OF 
bottom : the ridge is not so distinctly divided into a pair of tubercles as in most human 
mandibles, nor is the second lower pair of tubercles marked, which give attachment to 
the genio-hyoid muscles. The sublingual depression is not well defined. The mylo- 
hyoidean ridge begins below the root of the second premolar, and has the usual course, 
rising obliquely to the inner and back part of the last alveolus. Above the ridge the 
inner surface of the jaw presents the usual smoothness, indicative of the vertical extent 
of reflection of the mucous membrane of the mouth, and it is rather convex vertically ; 
below the ridge the surface is less smooth, and is convex vertically before bending to 
form the thick under-border of the mandible. 
I have noticed in Australian skulls that the mylohyoid ridge is nearer the alveolar 
border of the mandible than in European skulls ; showing that the mouth was less deep 
behind the large grinding-teeth, whilst the depression for the submaxillary gland was 
greater vertically. The cave-dweller resembles the European in the position and obli- 
quity of the mylohyoid ridge. 
In the less compacted breccia beyond the middle of the cavern at d, fig. 4, at a 
depth of about 4 feet from the surface, from which some portion had been removed 
during previous explorations, were discovered the upper (Begister-No. 38334, British 
Museum) and lower (ib. 38337) jaws, and portions of the cranium of a child of about 
four or five years of age. 
The deciduous dentition was in place and somewhat worn ; the alveolus of the first 
true molar, m 1, intervened between the last deciduous molar, d 4, and the coronoid 
process of the lower jaw, and contained the calcified crown of that tooth, visible through 
the wide aperture of the formative socket which the gum had covered. 
I have compared these remains with the skull of a child from an ancient Greek tomb, 
and with a skull of a child of the Murmi tribe inhabiting Nepal, both of about the same 
size and with the same phase of dentition as the Cavern remains. 
The premaxillo-maxillary suture shows the same degree of obliteration as in the Greek 
child ; more of the palatal portion is preserved in the Nepalese child ; the intra-nasal 
portion of the suture persists, and the external portion is wanting, in each. The line of 
the front border of the premaxillary below the slightly prominent nasal spine is as ver- 
tical as in the Greek skull. The gubernacular orifice of the first incisor is the largest, 
that of the canine the smallest ; the usual increase of thickness is shown in the septum 
dividing the alveoli of the canine and outer incisor. 
The deciduous molars of the cavern-child strictly accord with the human type ; the 
first of the upper jaw, d 3, has the two chief outer and inner risings of the crown with 
the notch near the posterior part of each. The second deciduous molar, d 4, is quadri- 
cuspid, with the antero-internal and postero-external cusps united by the oblique ridge : 
this tooth is rather larger in the cavern-child than in the Nepalese. 
In the lower jaw of the cavern-child the ascending ramus is rather broader and lower 
than in the Nepalese ; the chin is as well formed. The molar teeth closely conform, 
with the same degree of superiority of size in the second, d 4, of the cavern-child, and 
