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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