Evolution (Biology); Glacial epoch; Human beings -- Origin; Human evolution
When on my return to England I showed the cast of the cranium to
Professor Huxley, he remarked at once that it was the most ape-like
skull he had ever beheld. Mr. Busk, after giving a translation of
Professor Schaaffhausen's memoir in the "Natural History Review," added
some valuable comments of his own on the characters in which this skull
approached that of the gorilla and chimpanzee.
Professor Huxley afterwards studied the cast with the object of
assisting me to give illustrations of it in this work, and in doing so
discovered what had not previously been observed, that it was quite
as abnormal in the shape of its occipital as in that of its frontal
or superciliary region. Before citing his words on the subject, I will
offer a few remarks on the Engis skull which the same anatomist has
compared with that of the Neanderthal. [10]
FOSSIL SKULL OF THE ENGIS CAVE NEAR LIEGE.
Among six or seven human skeletons, portions of which were collected by
Dr. Schmerling from three or four caverns near Liege, embedded in the
same matrix with the remains of the elephant, rhinoceros, bear, hyaena,
and other extinct quadrupeds, the most perfect skull, as I have before
stated, was that of an adult individual found in the cavern of Engis.
This skull, Dr. Schmerling figured in his work, observing that it was
too imperfect to enable the anatomist to determine the facial angle, but
that one might infer, from the narrowness of the frontal portion, that
it belonged to an individual of small intellectual development. He
speculated on its Ethiopian affinities, but not confidently, observing
truly that it would require many more specimens to enable an anatomist
to arrive at sound conclusions on such a point. M. Geoffroy St. Hilaire
and other osteologists, who examined the specimen, denied that it
resembled a negro's skull. When I saw the original in the museum at
Liege, I invited Dr. Spring, one of the professors of the university, to
whom we are indebted for a valuable memoir on the human bones found in
the cavern of Chauvaux, near Namur, to have a cast made of this Engis
skull. He not only had the kindness to comply with my request, but
rendered a service to the scientific world by adding to the original
cranium several detached fragments which Dr. Schmerling had obtained
from Engis, and which were found to fit in exactly, so that the cast
represented at Figure 2 is more complete than that given in the first
plate of Schmerling's work. It exhibits on the right side the position
of the auditory foramen (see Figure 6), which was not included in
Schmerling's figure. Mr. Busk, when he saw this cast, remarked to
me that, although the forehead was, as Schmerling had truly stated,
somewhat narrow, it might nevertheless be matched by the skulls of
individuals of European race, an observation since fully borne out by
measurements, as will be seen in the sequel.
OBSERVATIONS BY PROFESSOR HUXLEY ON THE HUMAN SKULLS OF ENGIS AND THE
NEANDERTHAL.
[Illustration: Figure 2]
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