two malar bones in several human subjects and in certain apes, he cannot
consider this disposition of the parts as simply accidental. Another paper
on this same anomaly has been published by Dr. Saviotti in the 'Gazzetta
delle Cliniche,' Turin, 1871, where he says that traces of the division may
be detected in about two per cent. of adult skulls; he also remarks that it
more frequently occurs in prognathous skulls, not of the Aryan race, than
in others. See also G. Delorenzi on the same subject; 'Tre nuovi casi
d'anomalia dell' osso malare,' Torino, 1872. Also, E. Morselli, 'Sopra una
rara anomalia dell' osso malare,' Modena, 1872. Still more recently Gruber
has written a pamphlet on the division of this bone. I give these
references because a reviewer, without any grounds or scruples, has thrown
doubts on my statements.), which, in some of the Quadrumana and other
mammals, normally consists of two portions. This is its condition in the
human foetus when two months old; and through arrested development, it
sometimes remains thus in man when adult, more especially in the lower
prognathous races. Hence Canestrini concludes that some ancient progenitor
of man must have had this bone normally divided into two portions, which
afterwards became fused together. In man the frontal bone consists of a
single piece, but in the embryo, and in children, and in almost all the
lower mammals, it consists of two pieces separated by a distinct suture.
This suture occasionally persists more or less distinctly in man after
maturity; and more frequently in ancient than in recent crania, especially,
as Canestrini has observed, in those exhumed from the Drift, and belonging
to the brachycephalic type. Here again he comes to the same conclusion as
in the analogous case of the malar bones. In this, and other instances
presently to be given, the cause of ancient races approaching the lower
animals in certain characters more frequently than do the modern races,
appears to be, that the latter stand at a somewhat greater distance in the
long line of descent from their early semi-human progenitors.