Their chief interest (apart from the evidence as to a definite interment having taken place) consists in the alleged presence of 'negroid' characters. The skeletons are those of a young man (cf. Fig. 17), and an aged woman. The late Professor Gaudry examined the jaw of the male skeleton. He noted the large dimensions of the teeth, the prognathism, the feeble development of the chin, and upon such grounds pointed out the similarity of this jaw to those of aboriginal natives of Australia. Some years later Dr Verneau, in describing the same remains, based a claim to (African) negroid affinity on those characters, adding thereto evidence drawn from a study of the limb bones. In both male and female alike, the lower limbs are long and slender, while the forearm and shin-bones are relatively long when compared respectively with the arm and the thigh-bones. [Illustration: Fig. 17. Profile view of young male skull of the type designated that of 'Grimaldi,' and alleged to present 'negroid' features. _Locality._ Deeper strata in the Grotte des Enfants, Mentone. (From Birkner, after Verneau, modified.)] From a review of the evidence it seems that the term 'negroid' is scarcely justified, and there is no doubt that the Grimaldi skeletons could be matched without difficulty by skeletons of even recent date. Herein they are strongly contrasted with skeletons of the Neanderthal group. And although modern Europeans undoubtedly may possess any of the osteological characters claimed as 'negroid' by Dr Verneau, nevertheless the African negro races possess those characters more frequently and more markedly. Caution in accepting the designation 'negroid' is therefore based upon reluctance to allow positive evidence from two or three characters to outweigh numerous negative indications; and besides this consideration, it will be admitted that two specimens provide but a feeble basis for supporting the superstructure thus laid on their characters. Lastly Dr Verneau has been at some pains to shew that skulls of the 'Grimaldi-negroid' type persist in modern times. Yet the possessors of many and probably most such modern crania were white men and not negroes. Enough has however been related to shew how widely the skeletons from the 'Grotte des Enfants' differ from the Palaeolithic remains associated as the Neanderthal type. * * * * *