12 THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN 
on the sides of the skull occupied by the temporal muscles 
— muscles of mastication. The difference between these 
two frontal measurements is of some value. In skulls of 
a primitive race the lower or supra-orbital width is much 
greater than the upper or true frontal width. As regards 
the frontal widths, the Coldrum individuals show the 
same relative proportions as modern English people. 
In measuring the length of the face the forehead is not 
included. The forehead is really the anterior wall of the 
brain case ; it is not, in an anatomical sense, part of the 
face. The length one desires to measure is from the 
nasion — the point where the bridge of the nose abuts on 
the forehead — to the lower margin of the chin. The 
lower jaw is so often missing in ancient skulls that it is 
usually impossible to obtain the " total " face length ; 
hence we have to rest content with what is known as the 
"upper" face length — the distance as measured by calipers 
between the nasion and the point between the roots of 
the two central upper incisor teeth, the gnathion. Even 
as regards this measurement there is only one Coldrum 
skull available. All we can say, taking certain fragmentary 
parts into account, is that the face of this group of Neolithic 
people was rather shorter than in modern people and of 
about the same width. 
When we come to analyse the characters which dis- 
tinguish the people of the Neolithic period from the 
present population of Britain, we see that the changes 
affect, in the first place, the teeth, jaws, and face. 
Amongst modern Kentish folk, as is the case all over 
modern Britain, there is a tendency to crowding and 
irregularities of the teeth ; the palate and jaws do not 
grow and expand sufficiently in youth to give room for 
a symmetrical eruption of the teeth. There is a decided 
tendency to narrowing and elongation of the face — a 
tendency to produce a face of a hatchet-shaped pattern. 
The nose is narrow and the palate contracted, and its 
vault is high. The teeth are not worn down as in 
Neolithic men ; they are very liable to be attacked by 
caries. The front teeth, when the jaws are closed, do 
