Page:Natural History Review (1861).djvu/177

Rh recently found near Engers on the Rhine, in an ancient burial-place long well known. In the Museum at Poppelsdorf is a cranium, on which, in the handwriting of Goldfuss, are the words "from volcanic Tufa," nothing further, however, being noticed with respect to its derivation. It is of the considerable length of 198mm. (7.8") from the glabella to the projecting occiput; the forehead is short, and somewhat retreating, the supraorbital ridges large and continuous, the orbits very wide, the upper jaw prognathous, the muscular attachments on the facial-bones strongly marked; of the sutures, only the sagittal is ossified; the bones are thin, partially calcined, and adhere strongly to the tongue; the lower jaw is wanting. It is also to be noticed that several Germanic skulls found near Sigmaringen, belonging to the Prince's collection, and which have been placed in my hands by Dr. Fuhlrott have strongly developed supraorbital ridges; but, together with this,, they possess a greater or less frontal development, and a good facial angle. The Sinsheim skulls contained in the Stuttgart collection, also, present a noble Caucasian form. It is certain that even in ancient times the various Germanic stocks, according as they retained their purity of race, or became blended with the remains of a primitive population, or even with Roman blood, and in proportion as they led a savage or more civilized mode of life, differed in corporeal constitution, as well as in the formation of the face and head.

The difference as regards the cranium is most marked in the greater or less development of the anterior part of the head, and in the position of the muzzle, which is occasionally rather prominent, as is the case even at the present time in some of the German races, as, for instance, in Hesse and the Westerwald. Huschke describes a skull found, together with several others of the same peculiar form, under the Stadtkirche at Jena, as Cimbric; it resembles that of the Negro, except that the jaws and forehead are vertical; the supraorbital region projects but slightly, the semicircular temporal line ascends to within an inch of the sagittal suture. The length of the cranium is 196 mm, (7⋅7"). Retzius describes some skulls taken from very ancient Scandinavian graves, dating to a period of a thousand years back, as of a long-oval form, with much elongated occiput, good forehead, upright teeth, and corresponding in almost all respects with Swedish crania of the present day. An ancient Norwegian and an Icelandic skull had the same form. Subsequently, Retzius described the small rounded skulls from very ancient burial-places containing stone implements as those of Iberians. With these he places the skulls found by Eschricht and Nilsson in ancient sepulchral barrows; and also the supposed fossil Irish cranium figured by Wilde, which occurred in the neighbourhood of Dublin, as