inches, and the transverse arc probably about 10¼ inches, but, owing
to incompleteness of temporal bones, this could not be correctly
ascertained; the horizontal circumference is 23 inches, which high
figure is due to the vast development of the superciliary ridges; and
the sagittal suture, notwithstanding the great length of the skull,
only 4½ inches. Huxley sums up his examination of the Neanderthal
skull in these words: “There can be no doubt that, as Professor
Schaafhausen and Mr. Busk have stated, this skull is the most brutal of
all known human skulls, resembling those of the apes, not only in the
prodigious development of the superciliary prominences and the forward
extension of the orbits, but still more in the depressed form of the
brain-case, in the straightness of the squamosal suture, and in the
complete retreat of the occiput forward and upward from the superior
occipital ridges;” and he then proceeds to clearly show that the skull
could not have belonged to an idiot. On the whole, the Engis skull more
clearly approaches the Caucasian type, while the Neanderthal differs
entirely from all known human skulls, being more nearly allied to the
chimpanzee than to the human. Both these skulls belonged to individuals
who lived in the early Pleistocene era, the Engis being probably
the older of the two, and yet the Engis is the most like the modern
European skull, which tells us plainly that in those remote times there
were existing in Belgium and the surrounding districts two different
races of men, one highly advanced in brain evolution and the other in a
wretchedly low condition of intellectual development. The Neanderthal
skull probably formed part of an individual belonging to the tail-end
of a semi-human race, while the Engis skull, in all probability,
belonged to an oriental immigrant belonging to a more advanced race. It
must be always remembered that scientific men have long since admitted
the truth of the theory that the differences in character between the
brain of the highest races of men and that of the lowest, though less
in degree, are of the same order as those which separate the human from
the ape brain, the same rule holding good in regard to the shape of the
skull.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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