The human species

by A. de Quatrefages

CHAPTER XXVIII.
RACES OF FURFOOZ.

I. In giving the name of a locality justly celebrated in anthropology to this group of races, and in applying it especially to the two first, M. Hamy and I have been chiefly actuated by the desire to honour the long and conscientious labours, which have led to the discovery of quaternary man in Belgium. It is scarcely necessary to remind my readers that it is due, after Schmerling, to M. Dupont, who during seven years, from 1864 to 1871, has excavated more than sixty caverns or rock-shelters, from which he has obtained, independently of his human fossils, about forty thousand animal bones and eighty thousand stones cut by the hand of man. The race of Grenelle was discovered by M. Émile Martin, in 1867, in the gravel-pits opened in the neighbourhood of Paris, and afterwards characterised by M. Hamy. The race of La Truchère was found by M. Legrand de Mercey in a bank of the Seille, near to the locality of which it bears the name.

II. Considered from the point of view of the general form of the skull, these four types arrange themselves in an almost regular manner. The cephalic index 79·31 places the first Furfooz race among mesaticephali; the second Furfooz race becomes sub-brachycephalic by its index 81·39; that of Grenelle, whose index rises to 83·53 in the man, and 83·68 in the woman, approaches very nearly to brachycephaly properly so called. This is also the case with that of La Truchère, the index of which is 84·32.

Let us at once proceed to consider this latter, which, at present represented in quaternary times only by a head, is, on that account alone, far less interesting than its companions. The skull and face are here remarkable for a dysharmony as striking as that of the Cro-Magnon head; but the contrast is inverse. The skull, in this case, is broad and short, while the face is long. The face view of the former presents a very marked pentagonal appearance. The bones are all strongly developed in the transverse direction, with the exception of the inferior half of the coronal which slants rapidly inward so as to form a narrow forehead. The whole face is relatively small and narrow. The nose is very large and long; the massive cheek bones are slightly prominent, and the superior maxillary bones are slightly prognathous.

The two races of Furfooz, like that of Grenelle, have a certain family resemblance, which does not exclude the existence of distinctive characters. Thus, in the mesaticephalic race of Furfooz the antero-posterior arc of the skull produces above the small but well marked superciliary ridges, a very retreating forehead, and is continued with no further inflexion than a slight depression at the sutures. The face is broad and the index almost the same as that of the race of Cro-Magnon. On account of the shortening of the skull, the head is, however, harmonic, instead of being dysharmonic as in the troglodytes of Périgord. A slightly concave, but sufficiently prominent nose, square orbits, slightly marked canine fossæ, and an almost orthognathous superior maxillary bone complete this face, the bony framework of which has a somewhat finely cut and delicate appearance.

In this sub-brachycephalic race of the same locality, the forehead rises in a somewhat perpendicular line to the level of the frontal eminences. The arc then becomes suddenly flattened as far as the first third of the parietal bones where the curve becomes more inflected and is continued with almost unbroken regularity to the foramen magnum of the occipital. We meet with almost the same index in the face; but the orbits and the face are longer, the canine fossæ form deep indentations, the superior maxillary bone projects forward, the teeth follow the same direction, and the prognathism is very striking.

In the race of Grenelle, the very prominent glabella and full superciliary ridges give a slightly oblique direction to the base of the forehead. But the arc soon rises and is regularly developed without either projection or depression. The skull, viewed from the face, appears as well proportioned as in profile. The face harmonises with it. The cheek bones are well developed and prominent; the canine fossæ high, but not deep; the orbits approach the square form; the bones of the nose are concave and sufficiently prominent. Finally, the maxillary bone and the teeth are equally prognathous, but less so than in the preceding race.

III. The men of Grenelle, and still more those of Furfooz, were of small stature. The former reached a mean of 1·62 m. (5ft. 3·8 in.), but the latter descended to 1·53 m. (5ft. 0·2 in.) This is almost exactly the mean height of the Lapps. Yet this reduced stature would neither exclude the vigour nor the agility necessary to savage populations. The bones of the limbs and trunk are strong, and the eminences and depressions of their surface indicate a very marked muscular development.

With the exception of this general appearance of strength superior to that which is generally met with, the skeleton of the men of Furfooz and Grenelle strongly resembles that of men of the present day. The tibia in particular assumes the prismatic triangular form which we are accustomed to observe in them. We remark, nevertheless, the appearance of a character which we have as yet only noticed in the cavern of L’Homme-Mort, where we considered it to be a sign of crossing. The olecranon depression is often perforated in the races now under discussion. In Belgium M. Dupont found this disposition to exist in the men of the Lesse in the proportion of 30 per cent. M. Hamy carries it to 28 per cent, in the fossil man of Grenelle, and to 4·66 per cent. only in the French of the present day.