ANATOMICAL PECULTARITIES 151 
side by side with the palate of a native Tasmanian — the 
latter serving as a representative of the modern type of 
man. It is at once seen that the Tasmanian is the more 
simian in form of palate. Its length is 65 mm., its width, 
70 mm., the width representing 107 per cent, of the length. 
In the Gibraltar skull the length is much less, 54 mm., 
the width rather greater, 71 mm., representing 131 per 
cent, of the length. From the drawing which Professor 
Boule has reproduced of the reconstructed palate of the 
La Chapelle man,^ one estimates that its palatal length 
was 59 mm., its width, 74 mm. ; the width proportion, 
125 per cent. We thus see that not only the teeth, but 
also the palate of Neanderthal man had departed more 
widely from the simian type — had undergone a greater 
degree of specialisation — than the palate and teeth of 
races of the modern type. What was the meaning — the 
functional significance — of such a specialisation ? The 
Neanderthal teeth, in the writer's opinion, are of the type 
seen in herbivorous mammals. The wide palate, the wide 
dental crowns and big bodies of the teeth seem to indicate 
powerful side-to-side grinding movements of the mandible 
during mastication. On the evidence of the teeth and 
palate one is inclined to regard Neanderthal man as 
specially adapted to live on a rough vegetable diet. 
In the evolution of the early ancestral form of man 
from an anthropoid type, the palate, jaws, teeth, and other 
parts concerned in mastication appear to have undergone 
retrogression, as the brain became a larger and more 
efficient organ. The brain, by its invention, saved the 
labour of t"he jaws. The area of the palate (see p. 97) 
may be taken as an index of the extent to which the masti- 
catory system is developed. The capacity of the cranial 
cavity of the skull serves as a rough index of the brain 
power. It will be of interest to inquire how Neanderthal 
man stands in respect of palate and brain development. 
The area of the Gibraltar palate is 31-60 cm.- ; the brain 
capacity, 1200 c.c. The ratio of brain to palate is 38 c.c. 
of brain to i cm.' of palate. The corresponding area of 
' See reference, p. 239. 
