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Fig. 23.—the Skull from the Cave of Engis—viewed From The Right Side. 'a' Glabella, 'b' Occipital Protuberance, ('a' to 'b' Glabello-occipital Line), 'c' Auditory Foramen. Fig. 24.—the Engis Skull Viewed from Above (a) and In Front (b). Fig. 25.—the Skull from the Neanderthal Cavern. A. Side, B. Front, and C. Top View. One-third the Natural Size, by Mr. Busk: The Details from the Cast and From Dr. Fuhlrott's Photographs. 'a' Glabella; 'b' Occipital Protuberance; 'd' Lambdoidal Suture. Fig. 26.—drawings from Dr. Fuhlrott's Photographs Of Parts of the Interior Of The Neanderthal Cranium. A. View Of The Under And Inner Surface of the Frontal Region, Showing The Inferior Apertures Of the Frontal Sinuses ('a'). B. Corresponding View of The Occipital Region of the Skull, Showing The Impressions Of The Lateral Sinuses ('a A'). Fig. 27.—side and Front Views of the Round And Orthognathous Skull of a Calmuck, After von Baer. One-third the Natural Size. Fig. 28.—oblong and Prognathous Skull of a Negro; Side And Front Views. One-third of the Natural Size. Fig. 29.—longitudinal and Vertical Sections of The Skulls of a Beaver ('castor Canadensis'), A Lemur ('l. Catia'), and A Baboon ('cynocephalus Papio'), 'a B', the Basicranial Axis; 'b C', The Occipital Plane; 'i T', the Tentorial Plane; 'a D', The Olfactory Plane; 'f E', the Basifacial Axis; 'c B A', Occipital Angle; 't I A', Tentorial Angle; 'd a B', Olfactory Angle; 'e F B', Cranio-facial Angle; 'g H', Extreme Length of the Cavity Which Lodges The Cerebral Hemispheres Or 'cerebral Length.' the Length of The Basicranial Axis As to This Length, Or, in Other Words, the Proportional Length of The Line 'g H' to That Of 'a B' Taken As 100, in the Three Skulls, is As Follows:—beaver 70 To 100; Lemur 119 to 100; Baboon 144 To 100. In an Adult Male Gorilla The Cerebral Length is As 170 to the Basicranial Axis Taken As 100, in The Negro (fig. 30) As 236 to 100. In the Constantinople Skull (fig. 30) As 266 to 100. The Cranial Difference Between The Highest Ape's Skull And the Lowest Man's is Therefore Very Strikingly Brought out by These Measurements. In the Diagram of The Baboon's Skull The Dotted Lines 'd1 D2', Etc., Give the Angles of The Lemur's and Beaver's Skull, As Laid Down Upon the Basicranial Axis of The Baboon. The Line 'a B' Has The Same Length in Each Diagram. Fig. 30.—sections of Orthognathous (light Contour) And Prognathous (dark Contour) Skulls, One-third of the Natural Size. 'a B', Basicranial Axis; 'b C, B1 C1', Plane of the Occipital Foramen; 'd D1', Hinder End of the Palatine Bone; 'e E1', Front End Of The Upper Jaw; 't T1', Insertion of the Tentorium. Fig. 31.—an Australian Skull from Western Port, In The Museum of the Royal College Of Surgeons, With The Contour Of The Neanderthal Skull. Both Reduced to One-third the Natural Size. Fig. 32.—ancient Danish Skull from a Tumulus at Borreby: One-third of the Natural Size. From a Camera Lucida Drawing by Mr. Busk. |
I HAVE endeavoured to show, in the preceding Essay, that the ANTHROPINI, or Man Family, form a very well defined group of the Primates, between which and the immediately following Family, the CATARHINI, there is, in the existing world, the same entire absence of any transitional form or connecting link, as between the CATARHINI and PLATYRHINI.
It is a commonly received doctrine, however, that the structural intervals between the various existing modifications of organic beings may be diminished, or even obliterated, if we take into account the long and varied succession of animals and plants which have preceded those now living and which are known to us only by their fossilized remains. How far this doctrine is well based, how far, on the other hand, as our knowledge at present stands, it is an overstatement of the real facts of the case, and an exaggeration of the conclusions fairly deducible from them, are points of grave importance, but into the discussion of which I do not, at present, propose to enter. It is enough that such a view of the relations of extinct to living beings has been propounded, to lead us to inquire, with anxiety, how far the recent discoveries of human remains in a fossil state bear out, or oppose, that view.
I shall confine myself, in discussing this question, to those fragmentary Human skulls from the caves of Engis in the valley of the Meuse, in Belgium, and of the Neanderthal near Dusseldorf, the geological relations of which have been examined with so much care by Sir Charles Lyell; upon whose high authority I shall take it for granted, that the Engis skull belonged to a contemporary of the Mammoth ('Elephas primigenius') and of the woolly Rhinoceros ('Rhinoceros tichorhinus'), with the bones of which it was found associated; and that the Neanderthal skull is of great, though uncertain, antiquity. Whatever be the geological age of the latter skull, I conceive it is quite safe (on the ordinary principles of paleontological reasoning) to assume that the former takes us to, at least, the further side of the vague biological limit, which separates the present geological epoch from that which immediately preceded it. And there can be no doubt that the physical geography of Europe has changed wonderfully, since the bones of Men and Mammoths, Hyaenas and Rhinoceroses were washed pell-mell into the cave of Engis.
The skull from the cave of Engis was originally discovered by Professor Schmerling, and was described by him, together with other human remains disinterred at the same time, in his valuable work, 'Recherches sur les ossemens fossiles decouverts dans les cavernes de la Province de Liege', published in 1833 (p. 59, 'et seq.'), from which the following paragraphs are extracted, the precise expressions of the author being, as far as possible, preserved.
"In the first place, I must remark that these human remains, which are in my possession, are characterized like thousands of bones which I have lately been disinterring, by the extent of the decomposition which they have undergone, which is precisely the same as that of the extinct species: all, with a few exceptions, are broken; some few are rounded, as is frequently found to be the case in fossil remains of other species. The fractures are vertical or oblique; none of them are eroded; their colour does not differ from that of other fossil bones, and varies from whitish yellow to blackish. All are lighter than recent bones, with the exception of those which have a calcareous incrustation, and the cavities of which are filled with such matter.