On Some Fossil Remains of Man | Page 6

is really about 3/10ths of an inch shorter than the
original, and that the front view is diminished to about the same extent.
Otherwise the representation is not, in any way, inaccurate, but
corresponds very well with the cast which is in my possession.
A piece of the occipital bone, which Schmerling seems to have missed,
has since been fitted on to the rest of the cranium by an accomplished
anatomist, Dr. Spring, of Liege, under whose direction an excellent
plaster cast was made for Sir Charles Lyell. It is upon and from a
duplicate of that cast that my own observations and the accompanying
figures, the outlines of which are copied from very accurate Camera
lucida drawings, by my friend Mr. Busk, reduced to one-half of the
natural size, are made.
As Professor Schmerling observes, the base of the skull is destroyed,
and the facial bones are entirely absent; but the roof of the cranium,
consisting of the frontal, parietal, and the greater part of the occipital
bones, as far as the middle of the occipital foramen, is entire or nearly

so. The left temporal bone is wanting. Of the right temporal, the parts
in the immediate neighbourhood of the auditory foramen, the mastoid
process, and a considerable portion of the squamous element of the
temporal are well preserved (Fig. 22).
The lines of fracture which remain between the coadjusted pieces of the
skull, and are faithfully displayed in Schmerling's figure, are readily
traceable in the cast. The sutures are also discernible, but the complex
disposition of their serrations, shown in the figure, is not obvious in the
cast. Though the ridges which give attachment to muscles are not
excessively prominent, they are well marked, and taken together with
the apparently well developed frontal sinuses, and the condition of the
sutures, leave no doubt on my mind that the skull is that of an adult, if
not middle-aged man.
The extreme length of the skull is 7.7 inches. Its extreme breadth,
which corresponds very nearly with the interval between the parietal
protuberances, is not more than 5.4 inches. The proportion of the length
to the breadth is therefore very nearly as 100 to 70. If a line be drawn
from the point at which the brow curves in towards the root of the nose,
and which is called the 'glabella' ('a') (Fig. 22), to the occipital
protuberance ('b'), and the distance to the highest point of the arch of
the skull be measured perpendicularly from this line, it will be found to
be 4.75 inches. Viewed from above, Fig. 23, A, the forehead presents
an evenly rounded curve, and passes into the contour of the sides and
back of the skull, which describes a tolerably regular elliptical curve.
The front view (Fig. 23, B) shows that the roof of the skull was very
regularly and elegantly arched in the transverse direction, and that the
transverse diameter was a little less below the parietal protuberances,
than above them. The forehead cannot be called narrow in relation to
the rest of the skull, nor can it be called a retreating forehead; on the
contrary, the antero-posterior contour of the skull is well arched, so that
the distance along that contour, from the nasal depression to the
occipital protuberance, measures about 13.75 inches. The transverse arc
of the skull, measured from one auditory foramen to the other, across
the middle of the sagittal suture, is about 13 inches. The sagittal suture

itself is 5.5 inches long.
The supraciliary prominences or brow-ridges (on each side of 'a', Fig.
22) are well, but not excessively, developed, and are separated by a
median depression. Their principal elevation is disposed so obliquely
that I judge them to be due to large frontal sinuses.
If a line joining the glabella and the occipital protuberance ('a', 'b', Fig.
22) be made horizontal, no part of the occipital region projects more
than 1/10th of an inch behind the posterior extremity of that line, and
the upper edge of the auditory foramen ('c') is almost in contact with a
line drawn parallel with this upon the outer surface of the skull.
A transverse line drawn from one auditory foramen to the other
traverses, as usual, the forepart of the occipital foramen. The capacity
of the interior of this fragmentary skull has not been ascertained.
The history of the Human remains from the cavern in the Neanderthal
may best be given in the words of their original describer, Dr
Schaaffhausen*, as translated by Mr. Busk.
[footnote] *ON THE CRANIA OF THE MOST ANCIENT RACES
OF MAN. By Professor D. Schaaffhausen, of Bonn. (From Muller's
'Archiv'., 1858, pp. 453.) With Remarks, and original Figures, taken
from a Cast of the Neanderthal Cranium. By George Busk, F.R.S., etc.
'Natural History Review'. April, 1861.
"In the