Page:Antiquity of Man as Deduced from the Discovery of a Human Skeleton.djvu/15

Rh from the horizontal portion or "body" of the bone, shows also, by the degree of obliquity of its axis to that of the "body," the senile character of the bone. On its inner surface (Plate III. fig. 2) the notch in the margin of the aperture of the mandibular canal, m, leads, as usual, to a groove, n, extending obliquely downward and forward ; but the groove is here bridged over by a tract of bone, 8 millim. in extent, beneath a second aperture of a canal, n, from which the mylo-hyoidean nerve and vessel emerged, impressing a second groove, or continuation of that which is lost in the submandibular fossa. The wide smooth depression for the sublingual gland is feebly marked. The mylo-hyoidean ridge extending forward therefrom is strongly developed beneath the absorbed remnants of the last two molar alveoli. The "mental foramen" (Plate II. fig. 2), for the exit of the nerve and artery so-called, is of the usual size and in the usual position below the second premolar. Below the incisors the origin of the "levator menti" muscle is neatly defined by a low and narrow ridge. From the above details it may be inferred that the individual, though aged, was robust, and worked the jaw strongly in mastication.

In the cranial part of the skeleton the indications of strong muscular characters (Plate III. fig. 3) contrast with the low cerebral ones (ib. fig. 1), and like indications of brute force are given by the rest of the skeleton.

In the best-preserved humerus the ridge from the ectotuberosity subsides upon the middle third of the shaft; a ridge separating the outer (radial) from the hinder (anconal) surface begins to rise about the lower third of the shaft, and is continued with augmenting extent and sharpness to