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entered by Mr. Joass, in which the height of the passage was stated to be only four feet, it was evident that it could not have been used as a dwelling. A gentleman residing at Kirkwall had informed him that he had discovered the foundations of three or four circular buildings that might have been used as forts, and that he there found the remains of Bos primigenius, which animal is not existing in Scotland at the present time. Some of those erections were unquestionably places of sepulchre, and in such there were generally found two skeletons in the same tomb; the skull of one being most frequently of a lower type than the other. The theory of Mr. Wright to account for the presence of the second skeleton was, that when a chief or other great person died, one of his slaves was buried with him. The question remained to be decided whether the second person so entombed was of an inferior race. Similar remains to those described by Mr. Joass are also found very extensively on the Cheviot Hills.

Mr. ROBERTS said he had carefully examined a great number of these remains, and he was able to distinguish the difference between those that were dwelling places and those that were forts and places of sepulture; but he admitted that the differences between them were sometimes difficult to be distinguished.

Mr. CARTER BLAKE said that, after the last meeting of the British Association, he visited Mr. Tate, at Alnwick, and under his guidance he went to see some of the antiquities on the Cheviot Hills. In a most sequestered part, and near the highest peak of that range of hills, there is a large series of edifices, precisely of the same architectural status as those noticed by Mr. Roberts, and which had been well described by Mr. Tate. The period of time to which they belonged was somewhat doubtful, and it might be questioned whether the archæological divisions of stone, bronze, and iron periods could be depended on as correct indications of relative antiquity, for iron implements are sometimes found in collections of Celtic remains. Mr. Blake begged to add his testimony to that of Mr. Roberts to the able and energetic manner in which Mr. George Tate, of Alnwick, has, not only without assistance, but in spite of opposition, worked up the subject of those so-called Celtic, undoubtedly pre-historic, antiquities in his neighbourhood.

Dr. T. B. PEACOCK, F.R.C.S., then read a paper on The Weight of the Brain of the Negro. (This paper will appear in the Memoirs of the Society).

Dr. PEACOCK, at the conclusion of his paper, observed, in reference to the statements on former occasions by Dr. Tiedemann and by Dr. Hunt, respecting the smaller size of the brain of negroes, that it was very probable the difference between their statements and those in his paper might have arisen from the difference in the times after death that the brain was weighed. The brain, if kept in spirit, loses much of its weight. A brain which soon after death weighed fortynine and a half ounces, he had afterwards weighed at different times, the weight each time being less than before, until it was reduced to thirty-nine ounces. A brain that had been kept in spirit four years lost as much as one-third its original weight. He thought, there

fore, that the weights of the brain of negroes given by Dr. Tiedemann and Dr. Broca were not much to be depended on.

Mr. CARTER BLAKE stated that Dr. Broca had been engaged for a long time in making investigations on the subject of the brain in negroes, though no result had yet been made public. The observations of Dr. Peacock were grounded on a greater number of experiments than had been previously made, and were consequently of due value.

Dr. PEACOCK remarked on the difficulty of making such observations, as pure negroes seldom die in an English hospital. The observations in his paper had been accumulating for eighteen years.

Mr. CARTER BLAKE added that observations on the brain of the mulatto, of the most valuable character, had recently been made by Mr. Travers, the surgeon of the Charing-cross Hospital.

Mr. CARTER BLAKE then made a communication "on the Neanderthal Skull," a cast of which was placed on the table for examination, and a cast of the skull of a gorilla, as well as two negro skulls, was also placed by its side. Mr. Blake said:—

On the alleged Peculiar Characters, and Assumed Antiquity of the Human Cranium from the Neanderthal. By C. CARTER BLAKE, Esq., F.G.S., Hon. Sec. A.S.L., Foreign Associate of the Anthropological Society of Paris, etc.

I have now the honour to lay before the Society a cast of the "Neanderthal Skull," exhibited by Mr. J. R. Gregory (25, Golden Square, W.), and to call your attention to the descriptions of this skull which have appeared in the works of Fuhlrott, Schauffhausen, Busk, Huxley, Professor William King (of Galway), and myself,* copies of all which I place on the table, in order that members may have the opportunity of comparing the various discrepant opinions to which the discovery of this skull has given rise. The author of a paper has, I submit, a perfect and inalienable right to quote from his own writings; and as I have twice already told the tale of the Neanderthal skull, even in the pre-Lyellian age of the controversy, I shall make no excuse for making such copious extracts from my own previously published opinions, as may, according to my judgment, render the whole subject, alluded to in this avowed compilation, easier of solution. I shall afterwards read extracts from the writings of other palæontologists; I shall append a translation of the valuable Memoirs

*Fuhlrott. Menschenliche ueberreste aus einer Düsselthals. Bonn: 1859. Schauffhausen. Natural History Review, 1861, p. 160.

Busk. Natural History Review, 1861, p. 160.

Huxley (in Lyell's Antiquity of Man), 1st Edition, p. 80. (Man's Place in Nature, 8vo., London, 1863.)

Medical Times and Gazette, June 28, 1863.

Professor W. King. On the Reputed Fossil Man from the Neanderthal. (Quarterly Journal of Science, Jan. 1864.)

C. Carter Blake. On the Occurrence of Human Remains Contemporaneous with those of Extinct Animals. (Geologist, Sept. 1861, p. 395.)

C. Carter Blake. On the Cranium of the Most Ancient Races of Men. (Geologist, June 1862, p. 206.)

of Dr. Schauffhausen and M. Pruner Bey, and I shall conclude by a few remarks on the paper which Prof. King (of Galway) has recently published on this subject.

In September 1861, subsequent to the publication of Schauffhausen's and Busk's papers in the Natural History Review, I communicated a short note to the Geologist, in which I alluded to the following facts: "The most important, because the most recent, and the most generally canvassed human relic is that which Dr. Schauffhausen, of Bonn, has recently published, with remarks by Mr. George Busk, F.R.S., in the Natural History Review for April 1861. According to this statement in the early part of 1857, a human skeleton was discovered in a limestone cave in the Neanderthal, near Hochdal, between Düsseldorf and Elberfeld'. The opinions of geologists in Germany seem united to corroborate Mr. Busk's conclusion, that there can be no doubt of the enormous antiquity of this skeleton (found under a deposit of four or five feet of mud on the floor of the cave), and of the probability of its having belonged to what is termed the quaternary period. As, however, I know of no English geologist who has stepped forward to corroborate this theory, I hope that some of the many and intelligent readers of the Geologist may be led to consider the question.

"To the paleontologist this skull offers a source of interest, inasmuch as it exhibits a singular character, hitherto supposed to have been peculiar to the highest apes. All those persons who have seen the gorilla in the British Museum, or who have read M. du Chaillu's descriptions of its habits, must have been struck with the large and prominent supraciliary ridge which makes a development from the frontal bone, which gives to the animal that penthouse-like scowl over its eyes, and in which a crest of black prominent hairs is inserted, which greatly contributes to enhance the terrific appearance of the old male gorilla. This supraciliary ridge is characteristic of the genus Troglodytes; and in the chimpanzee it is also present, but to a less extent than in the gorilla. In this latter species a large amount of this elevation is due to the development of the space called by anatomists frontal sinus, which is a large cavity, divided into two portions by a perpendicular osseous partition, and lined with a continuation of the pituitary membrane, secreting the lubricating mucus discharged into the nose. This frontal sinus, Prof. Schauffhausen thinks, is the main cause of the production of the enormous supraciliary ridge in the Neanderthal cranium, as it is in the gorilla. Mr. George Busk dissents from this theory, and points out that in many recent crania of savage and barbarous men a considerable frontal elevation exists, in which no extraordinary expansion of the sinuses occurs; and Sir William Hamilton (Metaphysics, ii, p. 425) asserts, it is an error of the grossest, that the extent of the sinus is indicated by a ridge or crest, or blister in the external bony plate. Such a protuberance has no certain, or even probable, relation to the extent, depth, or even existence of any vacuity beneath.' In the Papuan and Australian races of men, which approach nearest to the ape in their cranial conformation, no frontal sinus whatever exists,

whilst a rather considerable frontal elevation is exhibited; whilst in the chimpanzee in which a remarkable supraorbital development exists, no frontal sinuses have been discovered.

"Professor Schauffhausen gives the measurement of a humerus, and radius, with two femora, in a perfect condition, and of part of ulna, humerus, ilium, scapula, and ribs; and it appears from his statements, that they exhibit characters of a human race, far transcending the present as regards power of muscle, as indicated by the thickness and rugosity of the bones.

"The presence and degree of development of the frontal sinus in the human and simian forms, are as follows:

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"The above shows the difficulty of predicating the amount of the frontal sinus by the development of the supraciliary arch." And I then proceeded to state that" We find in the Neanderthal cranium a very fair development of brain, and in the general shape of the skull (the supraciliary ridge apart), we find nothing which approaches to the gorilla. No interparietal crest, obliterating the sagittal suture, extends along the head; and although the hinder part of the skull is broken away, we cannot infer anything which approaches to an occipital or lambdoid crest. None of the other characters which so prominently differentiate the human from the simian sub-kingdoms are to be found in this ancient skull. It is not cerebrally inferior to the Papuan or Negro races.

"Was this man from the Neanderthal of the same species as that which now dominates over the animal creation? Dr. Latham, in his Ethnological Aphorisms, says, "that all existing varieties of man may be referable to a single species, but there may be certain species which have ceased to exist." Should this Neanderthal man have proved an intermediate species between the Papuan and the gorilla, a great point of controversy would be gained by the transmutationists; but the failure of the proof which Dr. Schauffhausen has brought forward, leaves the human species as far from the apes as it was when the author, who founded the genus Homo, placed it apart from the other Primates." And concluding a short paper, in which other evidences of ancient human remains had been discussed, I said,—

"It seems, therefore, irrefragably proved that the human species existed in Europe in the post-pliocene age, in, as well as we can judge from the celts' of Abbeville, a state of semibarbarism. However sparse the population, he still found some enemy to contest with him the products of the forest, and the spoils of the chase. His vast solitude, compared with the present activity and teeming millions of modern Europe, reminds the contemplative observer of the beautiful exclamation of the patriotic Espronceda,

"Cuan solitaria la nacion que un dia
Poblara inmensa gente!"

"We have thus evidence of the existence of man-Man, the highest brained (archencephalate, Owen) individual of the highest sub-division of known Mammalia, in whose image the most specialised adaptation of structure to fixed purpose is superadded to the original type of created animal life, which great Archetype was conceived by a Divine Mind, millions of years prior to the advent of the human race.' I certainly did not consider the Neanderthal skull as affording such peculiarities as would enable us to consider it as a distinct species of man.

In a subsequent paper, inserted in the Geologist for June 1862, "On the Crania of the most Ancient Races of Men," I further expressed my opinions regarding this skull at greater length. While this paper was going through the press, Professor Huxley, F.R.S., kindly permitted me to inspect the cast of the Neanderthal skull in his possession. It is my duty to acknowledge the great courtesy on his part by which these and other facilities, relating to cognate subjects, were given to me by that distinguished palæontologist. After due and diligent examination, however, I saw no reason to infer that it represented a distinct species or race to that which inhabits modern Europe. The following conclusions were then promulgated by me :—

"The apparent ape-like, but really maldeveloped idiotic character of its conformation is so hideous, and its alleged proximity to the anthropoid Simia of such importance, that every effort should be made to determine its probable date in time. That such efforts have not been made, and that the evidence at present in possession of English palæontologists is wholly inadequate to enable us draw any conclusion as to its being the representative of any given type of mankind, living or extinct, is the object of the following observations:

"The fact has not yet been conclusively demonstrated to the satisfaction of English geologists that the Neanderthal skull is of high antiquity. The time required for the deposition of the four or five feet of mud in the cave might have been accomplished in a comparatively short space of time. It is not stated at what height in the deposit the bones were found.

"Dr. Schauffhausen's statement, that the bones adhere strongly to the tongue, although, as proved by the use of hydrochloric acid, the greater part of the cartilage is still retained in them, which appears, however, to have undergone that transformation into gelatine which has been observed by Von Bibra in fossil bones,' is hardly precise enough to convince practical geologists of the antiquity of the skull. But of the Engis cranium no such evidence is afforded us. It is hardly necessary to repeat the arguments made use of by Buckland against Schmerling at the meeting of German naturalists at Bonn, which proved the less degree of gelatine in the fossil hyæna bones than in the human remains from the Belgian cave deposits. The condition of the Vale of the Trent skull, which has been apparently immersed in glue or some analogous liquid since its disinterment, has deprived us of the only chemical evidence which could have decided the question of its antiquity. Professor Huxley admitted to his audience at the Royal Institution (Feb. 7, 1862) that,

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