receding Essay, the
posterior lobe of the brain; and hence, the occipital protuberance, and
the curved line in question, indicate, approximately, the lower limits
of that lobe. Was it possible for a human being to have the brain thus
flattened and depressed; or, on the other hand, had the muscular ridges
shifted their position? In order to solve these doubts, and to decide
the question whether the great supraciliary projections did, or did
not, arise from the development of the frontal sinuses, I requested Sir
Charles Lyell to be so good as to obtain for me from Dr. Fuhlrott, the
possessor of the skull, answers to certain queries, and if possible a
cast, or at any rate drawings, or photographs, of the interior of the
skull.

(FIGURE 24.--The skull from the Neanderthal cavern. A. side, B. front,
and C. top view. One-third the natural size, by Mr. Busk: the details
from the cast and from Dr. Fuhlrott's photographs. 'a' glabella; 'b'
occipital protuberance; 'd' lambdoidal suture.)

Dr. Fuhlrott replied with a courtesy and readiness for which I am
infinitely indebted to him, to my inquiries, and furthermore sent three
excellent photographs. One of these gives a side view of the skull,
and from it Figure 24, A. has been shaded. The second (Figure 25, A.)
exhibits the wide openings of the frontal sinuses upon the inferior
surface of the frontal part of the skull, into which, Dr. Fuhlrott
writes, "a probe may be introduced to the depth of an inch," and
demonstrates the great extension of the thickened supraciliary ridges
beyond the cerebral cavity. The third, lastly (Figure 25, B.) exhibits
the edge and the interior of the posterior, or occipital, part of
the skull, and shows very clearly the two depressions for the lateral
sinuses, sweeping inwards towards the middle line of the roof of the
skull, to form the longitudinal sinus. It was clear, therefore, that I
had not erred in my interpretation, and that the posterior lobe of
the brain of the Neanderthal man must have been as much flattened as I
suspected it to be.

In truth, the Neanderthal cranium has most extraordinary characters.
It has an extreme length of 8 inches, while its breadth is only 5.75
inches, or, in other words, its length is to its breadth as 100:72.
It is exceedingly depressed, measuring only about 3.4 inches from the
glabello-occipital line to the vertex. The longitudinal arc, measured
in the same way as in the Engis skull, is 12 inches; the transverse