On Some Fossil Remains of Man
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Thomas H. Huxley >> On Some Fossil Remains of Man
FIG. 26.--Side and front views of the round and orthognathous skull of a
Calmuck, after Von Baer. One-third the natural size.
I have arrived at the conviction that no comparison of crania is worth
very much, that is not founded upon the establishment of a relatively
fixed base line, to which the measurements, in all cases, must be
referred. Nor do I think it is a very difficult matter to decide what
that base line should be. The parts of the skull, like those of the
rest of the animal framework, are developed in succession the base of
the skull is formed before its sides and roof; it is converted into
cartilage earlier and more completely than the sides and roof: and the
cartilaginous base ossifies, and becomes soldered into one piece long
before the roof. I conceive then that the base of the skull may be
demonstrated developmentally to be its relatively fixed part, the roof
and sides being relatively moveable.
Fig. 27.--Oblong and prognathous skull of a Negro; side and front views.
One-third of the natural size.
The same truth is exemplified by the study of the modifications which
the skull undergoes in ascending from the lower animals up to man.
FIG. 28.--Longitudinal and vertical sections of the skulls of a Beaver
('Castor Canadensis'), a Lemur ('L. Catia'), and a Baboon
('Cynocephalus Papio'), 'a b', the basicranial axis; 'b c', the
occipital plane; 'i T', the tentorial plane; 'a d', the olfactory plane;
'f e', the basifacial axis; 'c b a', occipital angle; 'T i a',
tentorial angle; 'd a b', olfactory angle; 'e f b', cranio-facial angle;
'g h', extreme length of the cavity which lodges the cerebral
hemispheres or 'cerebral length.' The length of the basicranial axis
as to this length, or, in other words, the proportional length of the
line 'g h' to that of 'a b' taken as 100, in the three skulls, is as
follows:--Beaver 70 to 100; Lemur 119 to 100; Baboon 144 to 100. In an
adult male Gorilla the cerebral length is as 170 to the basicranial
axis taken as 100, in the Negro (Fig. 29) as 236 to 100. In the
Constantinople skull (Fig. 29) as 266 to 100. The cranial difference
between the highest Ape's skull and the lowest Man's is therefore very
strikingly brought out by these measurements. In the diagram of the
Baboon's skull the dotted lines 'd1 d2', etc., give the angles of the
Lemur's and Beaver's skull, as laid down upon the basicranial axis of
the Baboon. The line 'a b' has the same length in each diagram.
In such a mammal as a Beaver (Fig. 28), a line ('a b'.) drawn through
the bones, termed basioccipital, basisphenoid, and presphenoid, is very
long in proportion to the extreme length of the cavity which contains
the cerebral hemispheres ('g h'.). The plane of the occipital foramen
('b c'.) forms a slightly acute angle with this 'basicranial axis,'
while the plane of the tentorium ('i T'.) is inclined at rather more
than 90 degrees to the 'basicranial axis'; and so is the plane of the
perforated plate ('a d'.), by which the filaments of the olfactory nerve
leave the skull. Again, a line drawn through the axis of the face,
between the bones called ethmoid and vomer--the "basifacial axis" ('f
e'.) forms an exceedingly obtuse angle, where, when produced, it cuts
the 'basicranial axis.'
If the angle made by the line 'b c'. with 'a b'., be called the
'occipital angle,' and the angle made by the line 'a d'. with 'a b'. be
termed the 'olfactory angle,' and that made by 'i T'. with 'a b'. the
'tentorial angle,' then all these, in the mammal in question, are nearly
right angles, varying between 80 degrees and 110 degrees. the angle 'e
f b'., or that made by the cranial with the facial axis, and which may
be termed the 'cranio-facial angle,' is extremely obtuse, amounting, in
the case of the Beaver, to at least 150 degrees.
But if a series of sections of mammalian skulls, intermediate between a
Rodent and a Man (Fig. 28), be examined, it will be found that in the
higher crania the basicranial axis becomes shorter relatively to the
cerebral length; that the 'olfactory angle' and 'occipital angle'
become more obtuse; and that the 'cranio-facial angle' becomes more
acute by the bending down, as it were, of the facial axis upon the
cranial axis. At the same time, the roof of the cranium becomes more
and more arched, to allow of the increasing height of the cerebral
hemispheres, which is eminently characteristic of man, as well as of
that backward extension, beyond the cerebellum, which reaches its
maximum in the South America Monkeys. So that, at last, in the human
skull (Fig. 29), the cerebral length is between twice and thrice as
great as the length of the basicranial axis; the olfactory plane is 20
degrees or 30 degrees on the 'under' side of that axis; the occipital
angle, instead of being less than 90 degrees, is as much as 150 degrees
or 160 degrees; the cranio-facial angle may be 90 degrees or less, and
the vertical height of the skull may have a large proportion to its
length.
It will be obvious, from an inspection of the diagrams, that the
basicranial axis is, in the ascending series of Mammalia, a relatively
fixed line, on which the bones of the sides and roof of the cranial
cavity, and of the face, may be said to revolve downwards and forwards
or backwards, according to their position. The arc described by any
one bone or plane, however, is not by any means always in proportion to
the arc described by another.
Now comes the important question, can we discern, between the lowest and
the highest forms of the human cranium anything answering, in however
slight a degree, to this revolution of the side and roof bones of the
skull upon the basicranial axis observed upon so great a scale in the
mammalian series? Numerous observations lead me to believe that we must
answer this question in the affirmative.
The diagrams in Figure 29 are reduced from very carefully made diagrams
of sections of four skulls, two round and orthognathous, two long and
prognathous, taken longitudinally and vertically, through the middle.
The sectional diagrams have then been superimposed, in such a manner,
that the basal axes of the skulls coincide by their anterior ends, and
in their direction. The deviations of the rest of the contours (which
represent the interior of the skulls only) show the differences of the
skulls from one another, when these axes are regarded as relatively
fixed lines.
The dark contours are those of an Australian and of a Negro skull: the
light contours are those of a Tartar skull, in the Museum of the Royal
College of Surgeons; and of a well developed round skull from a
cemetery in Constantinople, of uncertain race, in my own possession.
It appears, at once, from these views, that the prognathous skulls, so
far as their jaws are concerned, do really differ from the
orthognathous in much the same way as, though to a far less degree
than, the skulls of the lower mammals differ from those of Man.
Furthermore, the plane of the occipital foramen ('b c') forms a
somewhat smaller angle with the axis in these particular prognathous
skulls than in the orthognathous; and the like may be slightly true of
the perforated plate of the ethmoid--though this point is not so
clear. But it is singular to remark that, in another respect, the
prognathous skulls are less ape-like than the orthognathous, the
cerebral cavity projecting decidedly more beyond the anterior end of the
axis in the prognathous, than in the orthognathous, skulls.
It will be observed that these diagrams reveal an immense range of
variation in the capacity and relative proportion to the cranial axis,
of the different regions of the cavity which contains the brain, in the
different skulls. Nor is the difference in the extent to which the
cerebral overlaps the cerebellar cavity less singular. A round skull
(Fig. 29, 'Const'.) may have a greater posterior cerebral projection
than a long one (Fig. 29, 'Negro').
Until human crania have been largely worked out in a manner similar to
that here suggested--until it shall be an opprobrium to an ethnological
collection to possess a single skull which is not bisected
longitudinally--until the angles and measurements here mentioned,
together with a number of others of which I cannot speak in this place,
are determined, and tabulated with reference to the basicranial axis as
unity, for large numbers of skulls of the different races of Mankind, I
do not think we shall have any very safe basis for that ethnological
craniology which aspires to give the anatomical characters of the crania
of the different Races of Mankind.
At present, I believe that the general outlines of what may be safely
said upon that subject may be summed up in a very few words. Draw a
line on a globe from the Gold Coast in Western Africa to the steppes of
Tartary. At the southern and western end of that line there live the
most dolichocephalic, prognathous, curly-haired, dark-skinned of
men--the true Negroes. At the northern and eastern end of the same
line there live the most brachycephalic, orthognathous,
straight-haired, yellow-skinned of men--the Tartars and Calmucks. The
two ends of this imaginary line are indeed, so to speak, ethnological
antipodes. A line drawn at right angles, or nearly so, to this polar
line through Europe and Southern Asia to Hindostan, would give us a
sort of equator, around which round-headed, oval-headed, and
oblong-headed, prognathous and orthognathous, fair and dark races--but
none possessing the excessively marked characters of Calmuck or
Negro--group themselves.
FIG.29.--Sections of orthognathous (light contour) and prognathous (dark
contour) skulls, one-third of the natural size. 'a b', Basicranial
axis; 'b c, b1 c1', plane of the occipital foramen; 'd d1', hinder end
of the palatine bone; 'e e1', front end of the upper jaw; 'T T1',
insertion of the tentorium.
It is worthy of notice that the regions of the antipodal races are
antipodal in climate, the greatest contrast the world affords, perhaps,
being that between the damp, hot, steaming, alluvial coast plains of
the West Coast of Africa and the arid, elevated steppes and plateaux of
Central Asia, bitterly cold in winter, and as far from the sea as any
part of the world can be.
From Central Asia eastward to the Pacific Islands and subcontinents on
the one hand, and to America on the other, brachycephaly and
orthognathism gradually diminish, and are replaced by dolichocephaly
and prognathism, less, however, on the American Continent (throughout
the whole length of which a rounded type of skull prevails largely, but
not exclusively)* than in the Pacific region, where, at length, on the
Australian Continent and in the adjacent islands, the oblong skull, the
projecting jaws, and the dark skin reappear; with so much departure, in
other respects, from the Negro type, that ethnologists assign to these
people the special title of 'Negritoes.'
[footnote] *See Dr. D. Wilson's valuable paper "On the
supposed prevalence of one Cranial Type throughout the
American aborigines."--'Canadian Journal', vol. ii., 1857.
The Australian skull is remarkable for its narrowness and for the
thickness of its walls, especially in the region of the supraciliary
ridge, which is frequently, though not by any means invariably, solid
throughout, the frontal sinuses remaining undeveloped. The nasal
depression, again, is extremely sudden, so that the brows overhang and
give the countenance a particularly lowering, threatening expression.
The occipital region of the skull, also, not unfrequently becomes less
prominent; so that it not only fails to project beyond a line drawn
perpendicular to the hinder extremity of the glabello-occipital line,
but even, in some cases, begins to shelve away from it, forwards,
almost immediately. In consequence of this circumstance, the parts of
the occipital bone which lie above and below the tuberosity make a much
more acute angle with one another than is usual, whereby the hinder
part of the base of the skull appears obliquely truncated. Many
Australian skulls have a considerable height, quite equal to that of
the average of any other race, but there are others in which the cranial
roof becomes remarkably depressed, the skull, at the same time,
elongating so much that, probably, its capacity is not diminished. The
majority of skulls possessing these characters, which I have seen, are
from the neighbourhood of Port Adelaide in South Australia, and have
been used by the natives as water vessels; to which end the face has
been knocked away, and a string passed through the vacuity and the
occipital foramen, so that the skull was suspended by the greater part
of its basis.
FIG. 30.--An Australian skull from Western Port, in the Museum of the
Royal College of Surgeons, with the contour of the Neanderthal skull.
Both reduced to one-third the natural size.
Figure 30 represents the contour of a skull of this kind from Western
Port, with the jaw attached, and of the Neanderthal skull, both reduced
to one-third of the size of nature. A small additional amount of
flattening and lengthening, with a corresponding increase of the
supraciliary ridge, would convert the Australian brain case into a form
identical with that of the aberrant fossil.
And now, to return to the fossil skulls, and to the rank which they
occupy among, or beyond, these existing varieties of cranial
conformation. In the first place, I must remark, that, as Professor
Schmerling well observed ('supra', p. 300) in commenting upon the Engis
skull, the formation of a safe judgment upon the question is greatly
hindered by the absence of the jaws from both the crania, so that there
is no means of deciding with certainty, whether they were more or less
prognathous than the lower existing races of mankind. And yet, as we
have seen, it is more in this respect than any other, that human skulls
vary, towards and from, the brutal type--the brain case of an average
dolichocephalic European differing far less from that of a Negro, for
example, than his jaws do. In the absence of the jaws, then, any
judgment on the relations of the fossil skulls to recent Races must be
accepted with a certain reservation.
But taking the evidence as it stands, and turning first to the Engis
skull, I confess I can find no character in the remains of that cranium
which, if it were a recent skull, would give any trustworthy clue as to
the Race to which it might appertain. Its contours and measurements
agree very well with those of some Australian skulls which I have
examined--and especially has it a tendency towards that occipital
flattening, to the great extent of which, in some Australian skulls, I
have alluded. But all Australian skulls do not present this flattening,
and the supraciliary ridge of the Engis skull is quite unlike that of
the typical Australians.
On the other hand, its measurements agree equally well with those of
some European skulls. And assuredly, there is no mark of degradation
about any part of its structure. It is, in fact, a fair average human
skull, which might have belonged to a philosopher, or might have
contained the thoughtless brains of a savage.
The case of the Neanderthal skull is very different. Under whatever
aspect we view this cranium, whether we regard its vertical depression,
the enormous thickness of its supraciliary ridges, its sloped occiput,
or its long and straight squamosal suture, we meet with ape-like
characters, stamping it as the most pithecoid of human crania yet
discovered. But Professor Schaaffhausen states ('supra', p. 308), that
the cranium, in its present condition, holds 1033.24 cubic centimetres
of water, or about 63 cubic inches, and as the entire skull could hardly
have held less than an additional 12 cubic inches, its capacity may be
estimated at about 75 cubic inches, which is the average capacity given
by Morton for Polynesian and Hottentot skulls.
So large a mass of brain as this, would alone suggest that the pithecoid
tendencies, indicated by this skull, did not extend deep into the
organization; and this conclusion is borne out by the dimensions of the
other bones of the skeleton given by Professor Schaaffhausen, which
show that the absolute height and relative proportions of the limbs
were quite those of an European of middle stature. The bones are
indeed stouter, but this and the great development of the muscular
ridges noted by Dr. Schaaffhausen, are characters to be expected in
savages. The Patagonians, exposed without shelter or protection to a
climate possibly not very dissimilar from that of Europe at the time
during which the Neanderthal man lived, are remarkable for the
stoutness of their limb bones.
FIG. 31.--Ancient Danish skull from a tumulus at Borreby: one-third of
the natural size. From a camera lucida drawing by Mr. Busk.
In no sense, then, can the Neanderthal bones be regarded as the remains
of a human being intermediate between Men and Apes. At most, they
demonstrate the existence of a man whose skull may be said to revert
somewhat towards the pithecoid type--just as a Carrier, or a Pouter, or
a Tumbler, may sometimes put on the plumage of its primitive stock, the
'Columba livia'. And indeed, though truly the most pithecoid of known
human skulls, the Neanderthal cranium is by no means so isolated as it
appears to be at first, but forms, in reality, the extreme term of a
series leading gradually from it to the highest and best developed of
human crania. On the one hand, it is closely approached by the
flattened Australian skulls, of which I have spoken, from which other
Australian forms lead us gradually up to skulls having very much the
type of the Engis cranium. And, on the other hand, it is even more
closely affined to the skulls of certain ancient people who inhabited
Denmark during the 'stone period,' and were probably either
contemporaneous with, or later than, the makers of the 'refuse heaps,'
or 'Kjokkenmoddings' of that country.
The correspondence between the longitudinal contour of the Neanderthal
skull and that of some of those skulls from the tumuli at Borreby, very
accurate drawings of which have been made by Mr. Busk, is very close.
The occiput is quite as retreating, the supraciliary ridges are nearly
as prominent, and the skull is as low. Furthermore, the Borreby skull
resembles the Neanderthal form more closely than any of the Australian
skulls do, by the much more rapid retrocession of the forehead. On the
other hand, the Borreby skulls are all somewhat broader, in proportion
to their length, than the Neanderthal skull, while some attain that
proportion of breadth to length (80:100) which constitutes
brachycephaly.
In conclusion, I may say, that the fossil remains of Man hitherto
discovered do not seem to me to take us appreciably nearer to that
lower pithecoid form, by the modification of which he has, probably,
become what he is. And considering what is now known of the most
ancient races of men; seeing that they fashioned flint axes and flint
knives and bone-skewers, of much the same pattern as those fabricated
by the lowest savages at the present day, and that we have every reason
to believe the habits and modes of living of such people to have
remained the same from the time of the Mammoth and the tichorhine
Rhinoceros till now, I do not know that this result is other than might
be expected.
Where, then, must we look for primaeval Man? Was the oldest 'Homo
sapiens' pliocene or miocene, or yet more ancient? In still older
strata do the fossilized bones of an Ape more anthropoid, or a Man more
pithecoid, than any yet known await the researches of some unborn
paleontologist?
Time will show. But, in the meanwhile, if any form of the doctrine of
progressive development is correct, we must extend by long epochs the
most liberal estimate that has yet been made of the antiquity of Man.