Abstract
Revue d'Anthropologie, troisième série, tome 1, Paris, 1886.—On the Simian characters of the Naulette jaw, by M. Topinard. This celebrated find, which was discovered at the bottom of an obscure cavern 25 m. below the present level of the Lesse, near Dinant, in Belgium, is chiefly remarkable for its excessive prognathism, which is due alike to the great thickness of the horizontal branch of the jaw when compared with its height, and to the special obliquity of the axis of the alveolus of the second molar. In its relative proportions the Naulette jaw must be characterised not only as non-human, but as plus-Simian. A careful comparison of the Naulette jaw with the maxillary processes of the anthropoids, and of several of the lowest extant human races, has led M. Topinard to the conclusion that in the age of the mammoth, tichorine rhinoceros, and cave-bear, there had already appeared numerous mixed human types, to one of the lowest of which it may be presumed that the Naulette jaw belonged.—On the population of Bambouk, on the Niger, by Dr. Colin. An interesting paper on an extensive, but very imperfectly-known, region of Western Soudan, exclusively inhabited by a branch of the great Manding race, known as the Mali-nkès. The Bambouk territories, more than 600 kilometres in length, and from 80 to 150 in width, are divided into numerous little States, most of which enjoy a complete autonomy. Their want of consolidation, and the indifference of the people to all forms of religion, have made the Malinkès objects of contempt to their Mussulman black neighbours, but according to the narrations of the Griotes, or itinerant bards, who are to be met with in every part of Western Africa, they had at one time extended their dominion over all the tribes on the right banks of the Niger, and were preparing to invade Saigon when the advance of the French forced them to fall back within their original limits. For a time they submitted to the restrictions of Mohammedanism, but now they appear to have absolutely no religion. They prepare an intoxicating drink from honey, called “dolo,” in which women as well as men indulge to excess. The men are indolent, hunting only to avert starvation, and working their extensive gold-mines imperfectly, and chiefly by the help of the women, to whom falls the chief share of providing for the wants of the community, but who, after marriage, enjoy great freedom, although the young girls are kept under strict supervision.—On the human bones found in France in caverns belonging to the Quaternary age, by M. Cartailhac. Of such finds, none can be referred to the early period of the Saint Acheul, or Chelles deposits, the oldest belonging apparently to the Mousterian are, while the most abundant human remains are found in the comparatively recent beds of Solutré and La Madelaine. The former of these are remarkable for the enormous number of horse-bones accumulated about the stone hearths and in the kitchen-middens of this station. According to Dr. Cartailhac, 40,000 skeletons might be reconstructed from these equine remains, which seem to have been exposed to the action of fire, the greater number of the bones having been broken for the extraction of the marrow, whence he assumes that the horse must have reached its maximum development and served in the place of all other game at the period of the Solutré deposits. The writer compares together the human and other remains found in various Mediterranean and inland caves, with the special object of ascertaining how far the condition and mode of deposition of the skeletons can throw light on the vexed question whether the great preponderance of fractured over whole bones in these primæval graves indicates the practice of cannibalism, or whether it may not be dependent on the observance of special modes of burial, involving the burning or dismemberment of the body after death.—The facial angle proposed by Cuvier and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire for comparative anatomical determinations and for measuring facial differences in the living subject, by Dr. Collignon. The writer, who considers at length the merits of the various angles proposed by Camper and others, concludes by showing the superiority, for practical purposes, of adopting Cuvier's facial angle, measured by Topinard's goniometer for determining the median angle.
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Scientific Serials . Nature 35, 22–23 (1886). https://doi.org/10.1038/035022b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/035022b0