Part 8 (2/2)
The latter only was preserved, the former having fallen into dust while it was being extracted from the ground. Two small fragments of a human skull were likewise found at Engihoul; also a great many of the bones of the hands and feet of three individuals.
The Engis skull has been a subject of protracted argument to the palaeontologists and anatomists of the present day. Floods of ink have been spilt upon the question; discussions without end have taken place with respect to this piece of bone, in order to fix accurately the amount of intellect possessed by the inhabitants of Belgium during the epoch of the great bear and the mammoth. Up to a certain point the development of the brain may, in fact, be ascertained from the shape of the cranial envelope, and it is well known that a remarkable similarity exists between the cerebral capacity and the intellectual development of all mammiferous animals. But in a question of this kind we must carefully avoid a quicksand on which anthropologists too often make s.h.i.+pwreck; this danger consists in basing a theory on a too limited number of elements, and of generalising conclusions which are perhaps drawn from one special case. Because we find a portion of a skull--not even a whole skull--belonging to a human being contemporary with the great bear, we a.s.sume that we can determine the amount of intellect possessed by man during this epoch. But what proof have we that this skull is not that of an idiot, or, on the contrary, the skull of an individual possessing a superior degree of intelligence? What deduction can be logically drawn from the examination of one single skull? None whatever! ”_Testis unus testis nullus_;” and what is said by jurisprudence, which is nothing but good sense in legal matters--science, which is nothing but good sense in learned questions, ought likewise to repeat. If we found ten or twelve skulls, each presenting the same characteristics, we should be justified in thinking that we had before our eyes the human type corresponding to the epoch we are considering; but, we again ask, what arguments could be based on a few fragments of one single skull?
These reservations having been laid down, let us see what some of our great anatomical reasoners have thought about the Engis skull.
The representation which we here give (fig. 37) of the Engis skull was taken from the cast in the Museum of Saint-Germain, and we may perceive from it that the skull is not complete; the entire base of the skull is wanting, and all the bones of the face have disappeared. Consequently it is impossible either to measure the facial angle or to take account of the development of the lower jaw.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 37.--Portion of a Skull of an Individual belonging to the Epoch of the Great Bear and the Mammoth, found in the Cave of Engis.]
We shall not, therefore, surprise any of our readers when we state that the opinions on this subject differ in the most extraordinary degree.
In the eyes of Professor Huxley, the English anatomist, this skull offers no indication of degradation; it presents ”a good average,” and it might just as well be the head of a philosopher as the head of an uncivilised savage. To others--for instance, to Carl Vogt--it indicates an altogether rudimentary degree of intellect.
Thus Hippocrates-Huxley says _yes_, Galen-Vogt says _no_, and Celsus-Lyell says neither _yes_ nor _no_. This causes us but little surprise, but it induces us not to waste more time in discussing a question altogether in the dark, that is, upon altogether incomplete data.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 38.--Portion of the so-called Neanderthal Skull.]
We will now turn our attention to another skull, equally celebrated, which was found in 1857 by Dr. Fuhlrott, near Dusseldorf, in a deep ravine known by the name of Neanderthal. This skull (fig. 38) was discovered in the midst of a small cave under a layer of mud about 5 feet in thickness. The entire skeleton was doubtless buried on the same spot, but the workmen engaged in clearing out the cave must have inadvertently scattered a great portion of the bones, for the largest only could be collected.
It is well to call attention to the fact that no animal remains were found near these bones; there is, therefore, no certain proof that the latter can be a.s.signed to the epoch of the great bear: they might, in fact, be either more recent or more modern. Most geologists are, however, of opinion that they ought to be referred to the above-named early date.
The Neanderthal skull, of which we possess even a smaller portion than of the preceding, differs from the Engis skull. It is characterised by an extraordinary development of the frontal sinuses; that is, by an enormous projection of the superciliary ridges, behind which the frontal bone presents a considerable depression. The cranium is very thick, and of an elongated elliptical shape; the forehead is narrow and low.
These remarks were made by Professor Schaaffhausen, who also established the fact of the ident.i.ty in length of the femur, the humerus, the radius, and the ulna, with the same bones of a modern European of equal size. But the Prussian _savant_ was surprised at the really remarkable thickness of these bones, and also at the large development of the projections and depressions which served for the insertion of the muscles.
Fig. 38 represents this skull, which is drawn from the cast in the Museum of St. Germain.
Professor Schaaffhausen's opinion with regard to this skull is, that it manifests a degree of intelligence more limited than that of the races of negroes who are least favoured by nature, in other words, it approaches the nature of the beast more nearly than any other known human skull. But, on the other hand, Mr. Busk and Dr. Barnard Davis look upon this skull as very closely allied to the present race of men; and Professor Gratiolet produced before the Anthropological Society of Paris an idiot's head of the present day, which showed all the osteological characteristics peculiar to the Neanderthal skull. Lastly, an anthropologist of great authority, Dr. Pruner-Bey, has brought forward all requisite evidence to prove that the Neanderthal skull is identical, in all its parts, with the cranium of the Celt.
We see, therefore, that the opinion propounded by Dr. Schaaffhausen at the commencement of his studies was not able to stand its ground before the opposition resulting from subsequent labours on the point; and that this head of a man belonging to the epoch of the great bear and mammoth, which he regarded as manifesting the most limited amount of intelligence, differed in no way from the heads belonging to Celts of historic times, whose moral qualities and manly courage make Frenchmen proud to call themselves their descendants.
We need scarcely add that the examination of this latter skull, which dated back to the first origin of mankind, is sufficient to set at naught all that has been written as to the pretended a.n.a.logy of structure existing between primitive man and the ape, and to wipe out for ever from scientific phraseology the improper and unhappy term _fossil man_, which has not only been the cause of so many lamentable misunderstandings, but has also too long arrested the formation and the progress of the science of the first starting-point of man.
Other remains of human skulls, appearing to date back to a very ancient epoch, have been found in various countries, since the discovery of those above-named. We will mention, a jaw-bone found by M. edouard Dupont in the cave of Naulette, near Dinant, in Belgium--a frontal and parietal bone, extracted from the _Lehm_ in the valley of the Rhine, at Eggisheim near Colmar, by Dr. Faudel--a skull found by Professor Bocchi, of Florence, in the Olmo pa.s.s, near Arezzo--lastly, the celebrated jaw-bone from Moulin-Quignon, near Abbeville, found in 1863 by Boucher de Perthes, in the _diluvium_, of which bone we have given an ill.u.s.tration in the introduction to this volume. It is acknowledged by all anthropologists that this portion of the skull of the man of Moulin-Quignon bears a perfect resemblance to that of a man of small size of the present age.
From the small number of skulls which we possess, it is impossible for us to estimate what was the precise degree of intelligence to be ascribed to man at the epoch of the great bear and mammoth. No one, a.s.suredly, will be surprised at the fact, that the human skull in these prodigiously remote ages did not present any external signs of great intellectual development. The nature of man is eminently improvable; it is, therefore, easily to be understood, that in the earliest ages of his appearance on the earth his intelligence should have been of a limited character. Time and progress were destined both to improve and extend it; the flame of the first-lighted torch was to be expanded with the lapse of centuries!
II.
EPOCH OF THE REINDEER, OR OF MIGRATED ANIMALS.
CHAPTER I.
Mankind during the Epoch of the Reindeer--Their Manners and Customs--Food--Garments--Weapons, Utensils, and Implements-- Pottery--Ornaments--Primitive Arts--The princ.i.p.al Caverns-- Type of the Human Race during the Epoch of the Reindeer.
We have now arrived at that subdivision of the stone age which we designate by the name of the _Reindeer Epoch_, or the _Epoch of migrated animals_. Many ages have elapsed since the commencement of the quaternary geological epoch. The mighty animals which characterised the commencement of this period have disappeared, or are on the point of becoming extinct. The great bear (_Ursus spelaeus_) and the cave-hyaena (_Hyaena spelaea_) will soon cease to tread the soil of our earth. It will not be long before the final term will be completed of the existence of the cave-lion (_Felis spelaea_), the mammoth, and the _Rhinoceros tichorhinus_. Created beings diminish in size as they improve in type.
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