ANATOMICAL PECULIARITIES 155 
in modern men the muscles of the neck are usually 
attached short of this point. Indeed, the head is fixed to 
the neck in the Neanderthal race in much the same 
manner as in young anthropoid apes. We have just 
seen that the mastoid process, also part of the area of 
fixation of the skull to the neck, is also partially simian 
in character. 
It seems to me very probable that this peculiar poise 
of the Neanderthal head is related to the great develop- 
ment of the face and jaws. If the illustrations in fig. 53 
be examined it will be seen that the hinder border of the 
lower jaw lies just in front of the spinal column. If the 
reader will let the head fall forwards on the front of the 
neck, it will be found difficult to move the jaw, as in 
chewing, because it is wedged behind against the backbone. 
But if the face be thrown upwards — the occiput, of 
course, sinking backwards and downwards at the same 
time — it will then be found that the mandible has room 
for the most ample movements. It is for a similar reason, 
apparently, that Neanderthal man's head was fixed in an 
extended pose — one which gives his great lower jaw 
room to move. 
There is another modification in the basal part of the 
skull which tends to throw the face forwards and thus 
give freedom to the lower jaw. In 1863, Huxley^ called 
attention to the manner in which the base or cranial axis 
of the skull becomes bent with the evolution of the 
higher forms of primates. The greatest amount of 
bending is seen in modern human skulls. Now, in the 
illustrations given in fig. 53 the basal axis of the skull 
is represented by the stippled area. The pit or fossa 
for the small pituitary body or gland is situated on the 
upper (intracranial) aspect of the basal axis. The part 
of the base behind the pituitary — the postpituitary part — 
slants downwards and backwards, lying over the pharynx ; 
the part in front — the prepituitary part — stretches hori- 
zontally forwards, towards the root of the nose. In 
ordinary monkeys the prepituitary and postpituitary parts 
' Man's Place in Nature^ and other Essays, p. 192. 
