Authorities.—M. Caviezel,Das Oberengadin, 7th edition (Coire, 1896); C. Decurtius,Rätoromanische Chrestomathie, vols. v.-ix. (Erlangen, 1899-1908), deals with the two divisions of the Engadine from the 16th century to modern times; Mrs H. Freshfield,A Summer Tour in the Grisons and the Italian Valleys of the Bernina(London, 1862); E. Imhof,Itinerarium des S.A.C. für die Albulagruppe(Bern, 1893), andItinerarium des S.A.C. für die Silvretta- und Ofenpassgruppe(Mountains of the Lower Engadine) (Bern, 1898); E. Lechner,Das Oberengadin in der Vergangenheit und Gegenwart(Leipzig, 1900); A. Lorria and E.A. Martel,Le Massif de la Bernina(complete monograph on the Upper Engadine, with full bibliography) (Zürich, 1894); P.C. von Planta,Die Currätischen Herrschaften in der Feudalzeit(Bern, 1881); Z. and E. Pallioppi,Dizionari dels Idioms Romauntschs d’Engiadina ota e bassa, &c. (Samaden, 1895); F. de B. Strickland,The Engadine, 2nd edition (London and Samaden, 1891); J. Ulrich,Rätoromanische Chrestomathie, vol. ii. (Halle, 1882).
Authorities.—M. Caviezel,Das Oberengadin, 7th edition (Coire, 1896); C. Decurtius,Rätoromanische Chrestomathie, vols. v.-ix. (Erlangen, 1899-1908), deals with the two divisions of the Engadine from the 16th century to modern times; Mrs H. Freshfield,A Summer Tour in the Grisons and the Italian Valleys of the Bernina(London, 1862); E. Imhof,Itinerarium des S.A.C. für die Albulagruppe(Bern, 1893), andItinerarium des S.A.C. für die Silvretta- und Ofenpassgruppe(Mountains of the Lower Engadine) (Bern, 1898); E. Lechner,Das Oberengadin in der Vergangenheit und Gegenwart(Leipzig, 1900); A. Lorria and E.A. Martel,Le Massif de la Bernina(complete monograph on the Upper Engadine, with full bibliography) (Zürich, 1894); P.C. von Planta,Die Currätischen Herrschaften in der Feudalzeit(Bern, 1881); Z. and E. Pallioppi,Dizionari dels Idioms Romauntschs d’Engiadina ota e bassa, &c. (Samaden, 1895); F. de B. Strickland,The Engadine, 2nd edition (London and Samaden, 1891); J. Ulrich,Rätoromanische Chrestomathie, vol. ii. (Halle, 1882).
(W. A. B. C.)
ENGAGED COLUMN,in architecture, a form of column, sometimes defined as semi or three-quarter detached according to its projection; the term implies that the column is partly attached to a pier or wall. It is rarely found in Greek work, and then only in exceptional cases, but it exists in profusion in Roman architecture. In the temples it is attached to the cella walls.repeating the columns of the peristyle, and in the theatres and amphitheatres, where they subdivided the arched openings: in all these cases engaged columns are utilized as a decorative feature, and as a rule the same proportions are maintained as if they had been isolated columns. In Romanesque work the classic proportions are no longer adhered to; the engaged column, attached to the piers, has always a special function to perform, either to support subsidiary arches, or, raised to the vault, to carry its transverse or diagonal ribs. The same constructional object is followed in the earlier Gothic styles, in which they become merged into the mouldings. Being virtually always ready made, so far as their design is concerned, they were much affected by the Italian revivalists.
ENGEL, ERNST(1821-1896), German political economist and statistician, was born in Dresden on the 21st of March 1821. He studied at the famous mining academy of Freiberg, in Saxony, and on completing his curriculum travelled in Germany and France. Immediately after the revolution of 1848 he was attached to the royal commission in Saxony appointed to determine the relations between trade and labour. In 1850 he was directed by the government to assist in the organization of the German Industrial Exhibition of Leipzig (the first of its kind). The success which crowned his efforts was so great that in 1854 he was induced to enter the government service, as chief of the newly instituted statistical department. He retired, however, from the office in 1858. He founded at Dresden the first Mortgage Insurance Society (Hypotheken-Versicherungsgesellschaft), and as a result of the success of his work was summoned in 1860 to Berlin as director of the statistical department, in succession to Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Dieterici (1790-1859). In his new office he made himself a name of world-wide reputation. Raised to the rank ofGeheimer Regierungsrat, he retired in 1882 and lived henceforward in Radebeul near Dresden, where he died on the 8th of December 1896. Engel was a voluminous writer on the subjects with which his name is connected, but his statistical papers are mostly published in the periodicals which he himself established, viz.Preuss. Statistik(in 1861);Zeitschrift des Statistischen Bureaus, andZeitschrift desStatistischenBureaus des Königreichs Sachsen.
ENGEL, JOHANN JAKOB(1741-1802), German author, was born at Parchim, in Mecklenburg, on the 11th of September 1741. He studied theology at Rostock and Bützow, and philosophy at Leipzig, where he took his doctor’s degree. In 1776 he was appointed professor of moral philosophy and belles-lettres in the Joachimstal gymnasium at Berlin, and a few years later he became tutor to the crown prince of Prussia, afterwards Frederick William III. The lessons which he gave his royal pupil in ethics and politics were published in 1798 under the titleFürstenspiegel, and are a favourable specimen of his powers as a popular philosophical writer. In 1787 he was admitted a member of the Academy of Sciences of Berlin, and in the same year he became director of the royal theatre, an office he resigned in 1794. He died on the 28th of June 1802.
Besides numerous dramas, some of which had a considerable success, Engel wrote several valuable books on aesthetic subjects. HisAnfangsgründe einer Theorie der Dichtungsarten(1783) showed fine taste and acute critical faculty if it lacked imagination and poetic insight. The same excellences and the same defects were apparent in hisIdeen zu einer Mimik(1785), written in the form of letters. His most popular work wasDer Philosoph für die Welt(1775), which consists chiefly of dialogues on men and morals, written from the utilitarian standpoint of the philosophy of the day. His last work, a romance entitledHerr Lorenz Stark(1795), achieved a great success, by virtue of the marked individuality of its characters and its appeal to middle-class sentiment.
Engel’sSämtliche Schriftenwere published in 12 volumes at Berlin in 1801-1806; a new edition appeared at Frankfort in 1851. See K. Schröder,Johann Jakob Engel(Vortrag) (1897).
Engel’sSämtliche Schriftenwere published in 12 volumes at Berlin in 1801-1806; a new edition appeared at Frankfort in 1851. See K. Schröder,Johann Jakob Engel(Vortrag) (1897).
ENGELBERG,an Alpine village and valley in central Switzerland, much frequented by visitors in summer and to some extent in winter. It is 14 m. by electric railway from Stansstad, on the Lake of Lucerne, past Stans. The village (3343 ft.) is in a mountain basin, shut in on all sides by lofty mountains (the highest is the Titlis, 10,627 ft. in the south-east), so that it is often hot in summer. It communicates by the Surenen Pass (7563 ft.) with Wassen, on the St Gotthard railway, and by the Joch Pass (7267 ft.) past the favourite summer resort of the Engstlen Alp (6034 ft.), with Meiringen in the Bernese Oberland. The village has clustered round the great Benedictine monastery which gives its name to the valley, from the legend that its site was fixed by angels, so that the spot was named “Mons Angelorum.” The monastery was founded about 1120 and still survives, though the buildings date only from the early 18th century. Its library suffered much at the hands of the French in 1798. From 1462 onwards it was under the protectorate of Lucerne, Schwyz, Unterwalden and Uri. In 1798 the abbot lost all his temporal powers, and his domains were annexed to the Obwalden division of Unterwalden, but in 1803 were transferred to the Nidwalden division. However, in 1816, in consequence of the desperate resistance made by the Nidwalden men to the new Federal Pact of 1815, they were punished by the fresh transfer of the valley to Obwalden, part of which it still forms. As the pastures forming the upper portion of the Engelberg valley have for ages belonged to Uri, the actual valley itself is politically isolated between Uri and Nidwalden. The monastery is still directly dependent on the pope. In 1900 the valley had 1973 inhabitants, practically all German-speaking and Romanists.
(W. A. B. C.)
ENGELBRECHTSDATTER, DORTHE(1634-1716), Norwegian poet, was born at Bergen on the 16th of January 1634; her father, Engelbrecht Jörgensen, was originally rector of the high school in that city, and afterwards dean of the cathedral. In 1652 she married Ambrosius Hardenbech, a theological writer famous for his flowery funeral sermons, who succeeded her father at the cathedral in 1659. They had five sons and four daughters. In 1678 her first volume appeared,Sjaelens aandelige Sangoffer(“The Soul’s Spiritual Offering of Song”) published at Copenhagen. This volume of hymns and devotional pieces, very modestly brought out, had an unparalleled success. The fortunate poetess was invited to Denmark, and on her arrival at Copenhagen was presented at Court. She was also introduced to Thomas Kingo, the father of Danish poetry, and the two greeted one another with improvised couplets, which have been preserved, and of which the poetess’s reply is incomparably the neater. In 1683 her husband died, and before 1698 she had buried all her nine children. In the midst of her troubles appeared her second work, theTaareoffer(“Sacrifice of Tears”), which is a continuous religious poem in four books. This was combined with the Sangoffer, and no fewer than three editions of the united works were published before her death, and many after it. In 1698 she brought out a third volume of sacred verse,Et kristeligt Valet fra Verden(“A Christian Farewell to the World”), a very tame production. She died on the 19th of February 1716. The first verses of Dorthe Engelbrechtsdatter are the best; herSangofferwas dedicated to Jesus, the Taareoffer to Queen Charlotte Amalia; this is significant of her changed position in the eyes of the world.
ENGELHARDT, JOHANN GEORG VEIT(1791-1855), German theologian, was born at Neustadt-on-the-Aisch on the 12th of November 1791, and was educated at Erlangen, where he afterwards taught in the gymnasium (1817), and became professor of theology in the university (1821). His two great works were aHandbuch der Kirchengeschichtein 4 vols. (1833-1834), and aDogmengeschichtein 2 vols. (1839). He died at Erlangen on the 13th of September 1855.
ENGHIEN, LOUIS ANTOINE HENRI DE BOURBON CONDÉ,Duc d’(1772-1804), was the only son of Henri Louis Joseph, prince of Condé, and of Louise Marie Thérèse Mathilde, sister of the duke of Orleans (Philippe Égalité), and was born at Chantilly on the 2nd of August 1772. He was educated privately by the abbé Millot, and received a military training from the commodore de Virieux. He early showed the warlike spirit of the house of Condé, and began his military career in 1788. On the outbreak of the French Revolution he “emigrated” with very many of the nobles a few days after the fall of the Bastille, and remained in exile, seeking to raise forces for the invasion of France and therestoration of the old monarchy. In 1792, on the outbreak of war, he held a command in the force ofémigrés(styled the “French royal army”) which shared in the duke of Brunswick’s unsuccessful invasion of France. He continued to serve under his father and grandfather in what was known as the Condé army, and on several occasions distinguished himself by his bravery and ardour in the vanguard. On the dissolution of that force after the peace of Lunéville (February 1801) he married privately the princess Charlotte, niece of Cardinal de Rohan, and took up his residence at Ettenheim in Baden, near the Rhine. Early in the year 1804 Napoleon, then First Consul of France, heard news which seemed to connect the young duke with the Cadoudal-Pichegru conspiracy then being tracked by the French police. The news ran that the duke was in company with Dumouriez and made secret journeys into France. This was false; the acquaintance was Thuméry, a harmless old man, and the duke had no dealings with Cadoudal or Pichegru. Napoleon gave orders for the seizure of the duke. French mounted gendarmes crossed the Rhine secretly, surrounded his house and brought him to Strassburg (15th of March 1804), and thence to the castle of Vincennes, near Paris. There a commission of French colonels was hastily gathered to try him. Meanwhile Napoleon had found out the true facts of the case, and the ground of the accusation was hastily changed. The duke was now charged chiefly with bearing arms against France in the late war, and with intending to take part in the new coalition then proposed against France. The colonels hastily and most informally drew up the act of condemnation, being incited thereto by orders from Savary (q.v.), who had come charged with instructions. Savary intervened to prevent all chance of an interview between the condemned and the First Consul; and the duke was shot in the moat of the castle, near a grave which had already been prepared. With him ended the house of Condé. In 1816 the bones were exhumed and placed in the chapel of the castle. It is now known that Josephine and Mme de Rémusat had begged Napoleon for mercy towards the duke; but nothing would bend his will. The blame which the apologists of the emperor have thrown on Talleyrand or Savary is undeserved. On his way to St Helena and at Longwood he asserted that, in the same circumstances, he would do the same again; he inserted a similar declaration in his will.
See H. Welschinger,Le Due d’Enghien 1772-1804(Paris, 1888); A. Nougaret de Fayet,Recherches historiques sur le procès et la condamnation du duc d’Enghien, 2 vols. (Paris, 1844); Comte A. Boulay de la Meurthe,Les Dernières Années du due d’Enghien 1801-1804(Paris, 1886). For documents seeLa Catastrophe du duc d’Enghienin the edition ofMémoiresedited by M.F. Barrière, also the edition of the duke’s letters, &c., by Count Boulay de la Meurthe (tome i., Paris, 1904; tome ii., 1908).
See H. Welschinger,Le Due d’Enghien 1772-1804(Paris, 1888); A. Nougaret de Fayet,Recherches historiques sur le procès et la condamnation du duc d’Enghien, 2 vols. (Paris, 1844); Comte A. Boulay de la Meurthe,Les Dernières Années du due d’Enghien 1801-1804(Paris, 1886). For documents seeLa Catastrophe du duc d’Enghienin the edition ofMémoiresedited by M.F. Barrière, also the edition of the duke’s letters, &c., by Count Boulay de la Meurthe (tome i., Paris, 1904; tome ii., 1908).
(J. Hl. R.)
ENGHIEN,a town in the province of Hainaut, Belgium, lying south of Grammont. Pop. (1904) 4541. It is the centre of considerable lace, linen and cotton industries. There is a fine park outside the town belonging to the duke of Arenberg, whose ancestor, Charles de Ligne, bought it from Henry IV. in 1607, but the château in which the duke of Arenberg of the 18th century entertained Voltaire no longer exists. Curiously enough the cottage, a stone building, built by the same duke for Jean Jacques Rousseau, still stands in the park, while the ducal residence was burnt down by thesans-culottes. A fine pavilion or kiosk, named de l’Étoile, has also survived. The great Condé was given, for a victory gained near this place, the right to use the style of Enghien among his subsidiary titles.
ENGINE(Lat.ingenium), a term which in the time of Chaucer had the meaning of “natural talent” or “ability,” corresponding to the Latin from which it is derived (cf. “A man hath sapiences thre, Memorie, engin, and intellect also,”Second Nun’s Tale, 339); in this sense it is now obsolete. It also denoted a mechanical tool or contrivance, and especially a weapon of war; this use may be compared with that ofingeniumin classical Latin to mean a clever idea or device, and in later Latin, as in Tertullian, for a warlike instrument or machine. In the 19th century it came to have, when employed alone, a specific reference to the steam-engine (q.v.), but it is also used of other prime movers such as the air-engine, gas-engine and oil-engine (qq.v.).
ENGINEERING,a term for the action of the verb “to engineer,” which in its early uses referred specially to the operations of those who constructed engines of war and executed works intended to serve military purposes. Such military engineers were long the only ones to whom the title was applied. But about the middle of the 18th century there began to arise a new class of engineers who concerned themselves with works which, though they might be in some cases, as in the making of roads, of the same character as those undertaken by military engineers, were neither exclusively military in purpose nor executed by soldiers, and those men by way of distinction came to be known as civil engineers. No better definition of their aims and functions can be given than that which is contained in the charter (dated 1828) of the Institution of Civil Engineers (London), where civil engineering is described as the “art of directing the great sources of power in nature for the use and convenience of man, as the means of production and of traffic in states, both for external and internal trade, as applied in the construction of roads, bridges, aqueducts, canals, river navigation and docks for internal intercourse and exchange, and in the construction of ports, harbours, moles, breakwaters and lighthouses, and in the art of navigation by artificial power for the purposes of commerce, and in the construction and adaptation of machinery, and in the drainage of cities and towns.” Wide as is this enumeration, the practice of a civil engineer in the earlier part of the 19th century might cover many or even most of the subjects it contains. But gradually specialization set in. Perhaps the first branch to be recognized as separate wasmechanicalengineering, which is concerned with steam-engines, machine tools, mill-work and moving machinery in general, and it was soon followed byminingengineering, which deals with the location and working of coal, ore and other minerals. Subsequently numerous other more or less strictly defined groups and subdivisions came into existence, such asnaval architecturedealing with the design of ships,marineengineering with the engines for propelling steamers,sanitaryengineering with water-supply and disposal of sewage and other refuse,gasengineering with the manufacture and distribution of illuminating gas, and chemical engineering with the design and erection of the plant required for the manufacture of such chemical products as alkali, acids and dyes, and for the working of a wide range of industrial processes. The last great new branch iselectricalengineering, which touches on the older branches at so many points that it has been said that all engineers must be electricians.
ENGINEERS, MILITARY. From the earliest times engineers have been employed both in the field of war and on field defences. In modern times, however, the application of numerous scientific and engineering devices to warfare has resulted in the creation of many minor branches of military engineering, some of them almost rivalling in importance their primary duty of fortification and siegecraft, such as the field telegraph, the balloon service, nearly all demolitions, the building of pontoon and other bridges, and the construction and working of military roads, railways, piers, &c. All these branches requiring special knowledge, the modern tendency is to divide a corps of engineers in accordance with such requirements. The “field companies” and “fortress companies” of the R.E. represent the traditional tactical application of their arm to works of offence and defence in field and siege warfare. The balloon, telegraph, and other branches, also organized on a permanent footing, represent the modern application of scientific aids in warfare. (SeeFortification and Siegecraft;Tactics;Infantry, &c.)
History.—It is difficult to distinguish between military and civil engineers in the earlier ages of modern history, for all engineers acted as builders of castles and defensible strongholds, as well as manufacturers and directors of engines of war with which to attack or defend them. The annals of fortification show professors, artists, &c., as well as soldiers and architects, as designers and builders of innumerable systems of fortification. By the middle of the 13th century there was in England an organized body of skilled workmen employed under a “chief engineer.” At the siege of Calais in 1347 this corps consisted of masons, carpenters, smiths, tentmakers, miners, armourers,gunners and artillerymen. At the siege of Harfleur in 1415 the chief engineer was designated Master of the King’s Works, Guns and Ordnance, and the corps under him numbered 500 men, including 21 foot-archers. Headquarters of engineers existed at the Tower of London before 1350, and a century later developed into the Office of Ordnance (afterwards the Board of Ordnance), whose duty was to administer all matters connected with fortifications, artillery and ordnance stores.
Henry VIII. employed many engineers (of whom Sir Richard Lee is the best known) in constructing coast defences from Penzance to the Thames and thence to Berwick-on-Tweed, and in strengthening the fortresses of Calais and Guînes in France. He also added to the organization a body of pioneers under trench-masters and a master trenchmaster. Charles II. increased the peace establishment of engineers and formed a separate one for Ireland, with a chief engineer who was also surveyor-general of the King’s Works. In both countries only a small permanent establishment was maintained, a special ordnance train being enrolled in war-time for each expedition and disbanded on its termination. The commander of an ordnance train was frequently, but not necessarily, an engineer, but there was always a chief engineer of each train. At Blenheim (1704) Marlborough’s ordnance train was commanded by Holcroft Blood, a distinguished engineer. But after the rebellion of 1715 it was decided to separate the artillery from the engineers, and the royal warrant of 26th May 1716 established two companies of artillery as a separate regiment, and an engineer corps composed of 1 chief engineer, 3 directors, 6 engineers-in-ordinary, 6 engineers extraordinary, 6 sub-engineers and 6 practitioner engineers.
Until the 14th of May 1757 officers of engineers frequently held, in addition to their military rank in the corps of engineers, commissions in foot regiments; but on and after that date all engineer officers were gazetted to army as well as engineer rank—the chief engineer as colonel of foot, directors as lieutenant-colonel, and so forth down to practitioners as ensigns. On the 18th of November 1782 engineer grades, except that of chief engineer, were abolished, and the establishment was fixed at 1 chief engineer and colonel, 6 colonels commandant, 6 lieutenant-colonels, 9 captains, 9 captain lieutenants (afterwards second captains), 22 first lieutenants, and 22 second lieutenants. Ten years later a small invalid corps was formed. In 1787 the designation “Royal” was conferred upon the engineers, and its precedence settled to be on the right of the army, with the royal artillery.
In 1802 the title of chief engineer was changed to inspector-general of fortifications. From this time to the conclusion of the Crimean War various augmentations took place, consequent on the increasing and widely extending duties thrown upon the officers. These, in addition to ordinary military duties, comprised the construction and maintenance of fortifications, barrack and ordnance store buildings, and all engineering services connected with them. The cadastral survey of the United Kingdom (called the “Ordnance Survey”) had been entrusted to the engineers as far back as 1784, and absorbed many officers in its execution.
In 1772 the formation at Gibraltar of “The Company of Soldier Artificers,” officered by Royal Engineers, was authorized, and a second company was added soon afterwards. In 1787 by royal warrant “The Corps of Royal Military Artificers” was established at home, consisting of six companies, with which the Gibraltar companies were amalgamated. In 1806 this corps was doubled, and in 1811 increased to 32 companies. In 1813 its title was changed to “The Royal Sappers and Miners.” In 1856, at the close of the Crimean War, it was incorporated with “The Corps of Royal Engineers,” by whom it had always been officered. At that date the corps numbered about 340 officers and 4000 non-commissioned officers and men, in 1 troop and 32 companies.
In 1770 the East India Company reorganized the engineer corps of the three presidencies, composed of officers only. Native corps of sappers or pioneers were formed later, and officered principally by engineers. The officers of engineers were employed in peacetime on the public works of the country, their services when required being placed at the disposal of the military authorities. The Indian Engineers have not only distinguished themselves in the operations of war, but have left monuments of engineering skill in the irrigation works, railways, surveys, roads, bridges, public buildings and defences of the country. When Indian administration was transferred to the crown (1862) the Indian Engineers became “Royal,” so that there now exists but one corps, the Royal Engineers. This is composed of about 1000 officers and 7700 warrant and non-commissioned officers and men. Of the officers some 220 are attached to units, about 400 employed either at home or in the colonies on engineering duties in military commands, on the staff, or on special duty, and about 370 on the Indian establishment. The supreme technical control of the Royal Engineers is exercised from the War Office. See alsoUnited Kingdom;Army.
The history of the French engineers shows a somewhat similar line of development. Originally selected officers of infantry were given brevets as engineers, and these men performed military and also civil duties for the king’s service by the aid of companies of workmen enlisted and discharged from time to time. Vauban (q.v.) was the founder of the famouscorps de Génie(1690). Its members were selected officers and civilians, employed in all branches of military and naval services, and it soon achieved its European reputation as the first school of fortification and siegecraft. It received a special uniform in 1732. About 1755 it was for a time merged in the artillery. In 1766 the title ofGéniewas conferred upon the officers, and the same name (troupes de Génie) was given to the previously existing companies of sappers and miners in 1801.
In the United States the separate Corps of Engineers (since 1794 there had been a Corps of Artillerists and Engineers) was organized in 1802, starting with a small body stationed at West Point, which in 1838 and 1846 was gradually increased, and in 1861 given three additional companies. In 1866 they were formed into a battalion and stationed at Willets Point, N.Y. In 1901 they were reorganized in three battalions, with a total strength of 1282. The U.S. Engineer School, formerly at Willets Point, was transferred in 1901 to Washington. Until 1866 the military academy at West Point was under the supervision of the Corps of Engineers, but from that time its direction was thrown open; but the highest branch at West Point is still regarded as that of the engineers. The Corps of Engineers has done a great deal of highly important work in the United States, notably in building forts, and improving rivers and harbours for navigation.
See Maj.-Gen. R.W. Porter,Hist, of the Corps of Royal Engineers(Chatham, 1889); C. Lecomte,Les Ingénieurs militaires de la France(Paris, 1903); H. Frobenius,Geschichte der K. preuss. Ingenieur- und Pioneer-Korps(Berlin, 1906).
See Maj.-Gen. R.W. Porter,Hist, of the Corps of Royal Engineers(Chatham, 1889); C. Lecomte,Les Ingénieurs militaires de la France(Paris, 1903); H. Frobenius,Geschichte der K. preuss. Ingenieur- und Pioneer-Korps(Berlin, 1906).
ENGIS,a cave on the banks of the Meuse near Liége, Belgium, where in 1832 Dr P.C. Schmerling found human remains in deposits belonging to the Quaternary period. Bones of the cave-bear, mammoth, rhinoceros and hyena were discovered in association with parts of a man’s skeleton and a human skull. This, known as “the Engis Skull,” gave rise to much discussion among anthropologists, since it has characteristics of both high and low development, the forehead, low and narrow, indicating slight intelligence, while the abnormally large brain cavity contradicts this conclusion. Of it Huxley wrote: “There is no mark of degradation about any part of its structure. It is a fair average human skull, which might have belonged to a philosopher, or might have contained the thoughtless brains of a savage.” Dr Schmerling concluded that the human remains were those of man who had been contemporary with the extinct mammals. As, however, fragments of coarse pottery were found in the cave which bore other evidence of having been used by neolithic man, by whom the cave-floor and its contents might have been disturbed and mixed, his arguments have not been regarded as conclusive. There is, however, no doubt as to the great age of the Engis Skull. Discoveries of a like nature were made by Dr Schmerling in the neighbourhood in the caves of Engihoul, Chokier and others.
See P.C. Schmerling,Recherches sur les ossements découverts dans les cavernes de la province Liège(1833); Huxley,Man’s Place in Nature, p. 156; Lord Avebury,Prehistoric Times, p. 317 (1900).
See P.C. Schmerling,Recherches sur les ossements découverts dans les cavernes de la province Liège(1833); Huxley,Man’s Place in Nature, p. 156; Lord Avebury,Prehistoric Times, p. 317 (1900).