[10] For figures of the skulls and flint implements of these ancient men, see my volume, "Science from an Easy Chair," First Series. Methuen, 1910.
Now that we know more of him, we may ask, "Does this Neanderthal or Moustierian man fill the place of the missing link?" It appears that he does not. He seems to have died out without leaving any descendants. In so far as that his bony jaw sloped directly downwards and backwards from the margin of the sockets of his front teeth, as in the apes, without projecting below, to form a chin protuberance--as it does in all races of Homo sapiens, on account of the shrinking inwards of the gum-line or palisade of front teeth (incisors and canines)--the Neanderman offers a certain approach to the condition of the apes; but in other details of shape of the lower jaw, and especially in regard to the narrowness of the lower surface of the chin and the large and deep attachments on its inner face, for the digastric muscle and certain muscles of the tongue, the bony remains of the Neanderman show that he is distinctly and altogether human, and not like the higher apes. Moreover, in the very large size of his brain (as much as 1600 units) the Neanderman shows no approach to the relatively small brain of the higher apes (which measures 500 units, possibly 800 by exception). There is in these structures some argument for the conclusion that the Neanderman could use articulate language, and inasmuch as the climate in which he flourished was extremely cold, there is ground for supposing that he could produce fire and clothe himself with skins. The flint implements which are definitely associated with him are of more skilful workmanship than the earlier, more elaborate, but less cleverly conceived, Chellean and Acheuillian implements. We cannot refuse to call him "man"--not Homo sapiens, we agree--but of the "genus" Homo--Homo Neanderthalensis.
[Illustration: FIG. 24.--Diagrams of the lower surface of the lower jaw of A, man; B, the Eoanthropus of Piltdown (the left half reconstructed); and C, the Chimpanzee.
The jaws are supposed to be immersed in sand, so as to conceal all but the lower surface. The narrowness of the actual inferior margin of the jaw in man, A, a, b, contrasts with the breadth and flatness of this same border in Eoanthropus, B, a, b, and the Chimpanzee, C, a, b.