Page:Evolution of Life (Henry Cadwalader Chapman, 1873).djvu/234

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EVOLUTION OF LIFE.
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stage of development. They also frequently stand in reciprocal dependence; one character determines the other, according to the law of harmony or coexistence which governs the form of all living bodies. With the flying forehead, we find, as a rule, a projecting jaw, large teeth, a high temporal line, a strongly developed occipital ridge, simple cranial sutures, small cranial capacity." Mr. Carter Blake, in describing the jaw of La Naulette (Fig. 202), so called from being found in the hole of the same name, says, " Its undoubted resemblance to the jaw of a young ape I shall not venture to deny." In speaking of the molar teeth we stated that they were of equal size in the lower races of man, but that the last molar was the largest in the milk teeth of man and in the adult Chimpanzee. In reference to these facts, the jaw of La Naulette is extremely interesting, since its last molar is the largest, agreeing in this respect with that of the Chimpanzee and milk teeth of Man; the tooth also exhibits the remarkable peculiarity of having five roots, as is the case with the last molar of the Gorilla and Orang. Further, in the great size of the canine teeth, and the absence of the chin, the jaw of La Naulette resembles in a marked degree that of the Chimpanzee. An important distinction between the molar and premolar teeth in man is that the molar teeth have three roots, while the premolars have only two; but a very ancient human skull found at Olmutz exhibits, according to Schaffhausen, the peculiarity of the second premolar having three roots, as is the case in the premolars of the Apes. According to the same' author, this is also seen in two human skulls belonging to the Göttingen collection. In comparing the human bones and cranium brought from the cave of Neanderthal with other specimens. Prof. Schaffhausen says they "exceed all the rest in those peculiarities of conformation which lead to the conclusion of their belonging to a barbarous and savage race," and at the conclusion of