PREHISTORIC WOMAN
In the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons lies a famous skull. Discovered at Gibraltar many years ago, it has been agreed to be that of a human being of prehistoric times. Professor A. Keith, curator of the museum, has compared the skull minutely with those of the people of all nations to-day, and has set it side by side with all other available prehistoric relics. “The skull, I have little doubt, is that of a woman,” he said. “From the size of her brain she must have been shrewd—probably a woman, too, of considerable spirit. One can reckon pretty accurately also the time at which she lived. It must have been at least 600,000 years ago. From the jaws and the fact that the muscles of mastication were remarkably strong it is possible to deduce what this prehistoric woman ate. Nuts and roots probably entered very largely into her diet. She was in the habit of eating things which required a great amount of mastication before much nourishment could be derived from them, hence the unusual development of the jaw muscles.”
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PREJUDGMENT
It is not uncommon for men to judge a cause before they have heard the facts:
Lord Eldon said, “I remember Mr. Justice Gould trying a case at York, and when he had proceeded for about two hours, he observed, ‘Here are only eleven jurymen; where is the twelfth?’ ‘Please you, my lord,’ said one of the eleven, ‘he is gone away about some business, but he has left his verdict with me.’”—Croake James, “Curiosities of Law and Lawyers.”
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PREJUDICE
Take equal parts of malice, ignorance and hate, mix well and serve hot, and you have prejudice.—N. D. Hillis.
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