Page:Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man.djvu/100

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
82
NEANDERTHAL SKULL.
CHAP. V.

the frontal bone to the occipital protuberance (d) measures about 1334 inches. The transverse arc from one auditory foramen to the other across the middle of the sagittal suture measures about 13 inches. The sagittal suture (b c) is 512 inches in length. The superciliary prominences are well, but not excessively, developed, and are separated by a median depression in the region of the glabella. They indicate large frontal sinuses. If a line joining the glabella and the occipital protuberance (a d) be made horizontal, no part of the occiput projects more than 110th of an inch behind the posterior extremity of that line; and the upper edge of the auditory foramen is almost in contact with the same line, or rather with one drawn parallel to it on the outer surface of the skull.

Fig. 3

Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man Fig. 3.png

Side view of the cast of a part of a human skull from a cave in the Neanderthal near Düsseldorf.

a Superciliary ridge and glabella. b Coronal suture.

c The apex of the lambdoidal suture. d The occipital protuberance.

'The Neanderthal skull, with which also I am acquainted only by means of Professor Schaaffhausen's drawings of an excellent cast and of photographs, is so extremely different in appearance from the Engis cranium, that it might well be supposed to belong to a distinct race of mankind. It is 8 inches in extreme length and 5⋅75 inches in