great, that it can hardly be described as limited to the superciliary ridges. Dr. Schaaffhausen appears to regard this extraordinary conformation as due to an expansion of the frontal sinuses. In this we are not disposed altogether to agree with him; but as we have had an opportunity, through the kindness of Sir Charles Lyell, of examining only a plaster cast of the cranium, in which the interior is not shown, we, of course, are able to speak but doubtfully on the subject. A main reason for our disagreement with Professor Schaaffhausen arises from the circumstance that a considerable elevation of the same part is often observed in recent crania, more especially, as he states, in those belonging to savage and barbarous races, in which no extraordinary expansion of the sinuses is found to exist;[1] and, secondly, because the frontal sinuses rarely, we believe, extend beyond half the length of the supraorbital border; whilst in many cases—and this is particularly evident in the Neanderthal cranium—the elevation is continued to the outer angular process of the frontal bone, which, in that cranium, is very remarkably thickened.
The lateral extent of the frontal sinus, in cases where the superciliary borders are much elevated, is usually imperfectly indicated by an opening or depression, through which the frontal nerve passes; and this depression is very manifest, especially on the right side, in the fossil cranium, in which it is regarded by Professor Schaaffhausen, we believe erroneously, as indicative of an injury received during life. In the mature Chimpanzee and Gorilla, the supraorbital ridges are, as is well known, remarkably developed: in the former case, we are not aware that the enlargement is accompanied with any expansion of the frontal sinuses, which in fact do not exist in that ape, but it is due simply to a projection of the margin of the orbit, which, cavity is larger in proportion to the skull behind it, than it is in the human subject, and is thus in accordance with the greater development of the face generally. In the old Gorilla, on the other hand, although the bone itself is enormously thickened in the monstrous projection above the orbit, there are very large frontal sinuses.[2] However this may be, the protuberance in question must be regarded as showing a very savage type; and, in the extent to which it exists in the Neanderthal cranium, it affords a character in which that skull approaches that of the Gorilla and Chimpanzee.
Dr. Schaaffhausen appears to have taken considerable pains to in-
- ↑ It may be observed also that a considerable development of the sinuses may coexist with only a moderate elevation of the superciliary region. This is the case in the fragment of a cranium represented in Pl. V., fig. 6.
- ↑ In order to render the apparent resemblance between the Neanderthal cranium and that of the higher apes the more evident, we have given the outline of a corresponding portion of the skull of a Chimpanzee, in which the third molars are just appearing, and which will serve to show the remarkable similarity in contour, at any rate, between the two. The human cranium, it is hardly necessary to say, is represented half the size of nature, whilst that of the Chimpanzee is but slightly reduced, so as to bring it to the same comparative scale.
