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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

We see here that the skulls from the Somme, with a ratio of 230, stand in the
same class with those of the Iceland ponies and the Anau horse, together with the
Arabian horse and the smallest specimens of Equus przewalskii. Here, too, comes
the Auvernier horse of the bronze age, and it agrees well with a Kalmuk horse of
Nehring's series; but the Bohemian horses all belong to the narrow frontal class.
Nehring, in his table of this ratio finds the smallest index, on a real horse,
on a Turkestan mare brought from Bushed by von Schlagenweit; her index was
only 212. He calls broad-fronted all horses with indices up to 240, and narrow-
fronted all above this.
Tscherski, as we have seen already in the general discussion, distinguishes
also medium-fronted horses, among which he includes all with indices between
226 and 240. If we would avoid the expressions broad and narrow-fronted, it
would be better, as Eichbaum has mentioned, to use the terms "dolichoprosopic"
and "brachyprosopic" than "dolichocephalic" and "brachycephalic," since it
is not the brain-cap but the face that varies.
The diluvial horses of Germany appear at once to have been narrow-fronted,
while those of Siberia, of Tscherski, and the Equus przewalskii of Salenski were the
medium-fronted. With these we must rank the horse of Anau, and there remains
only the question as to where the horses of Solutré and Kesslerloch belong. San-
son wished to count them among the "dolichocephali;" he is, however, opposed
by Fraas, who ranks them with the Würtemberg fossil horses as short-headed.
The studies of Studer* and Hescheler† also, as regards the Swiss horses, have
supplied no valuable data concerning the shape of head.

BASILAR AND PALATAL REGION.

I can not leave the discussion of the skull without touching upon Frank's
proportion of the basilar-palatal region, although this dimension can neither be
directly measured on the remains from Anau, nor calculated with approximate
accuracy. I have determined the value of this index (which is also influenced
by the ear-musculature) in discriminating between ass and horse, and I remark
that Salenski as well as Nehring considers it of the greatest value; yet Nehring
asserts that a real ass, Equus tæniopus, resembles in this respect a horse. But since
this index is a weakened repetition of the ear-load and parietal-curvature indices, it
is better to use the more delicate method; however this may be, a brief review of
this index in our horses is given in the following table:
From From
forainen vomer to
magnum sutura
to vomer. palatina.
Equus asinus from Sarepta, 5 years, after Nehring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 : 95
Equus caballus, Exmoor pony, 15 years, after Nehring . . . . . . . . . . . 95 : 91
Equus asinus, East Africa, after Nehring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 : 88
Equus caballus Auvernier. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 : 100
Equus caballus Kutterschitz. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 : 94
Equus caballus Turkestan, 10 years, after Nehring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 : 96
Equus caballus Schuettarschen, Hallstatt time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 : 100
Diluvial horse, Remagen, after Nehring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 : 111