PALEOLITHIC RACES 345 



The matrix with which the skull-cap was filled when it was 

 first brought over to Europe has since been carefully removed, 

 sd as to expose the interior, thus rendering it possible to 

 obtain a plaster cast which represents approximately the form 

 of the brain. 



Next to mind, speech is the distinctive faculty of man ; some 

 thinkers have even given this the first place. But the power 

 of speech resides in a particular fold of the brain, the lower 

 frontal lobe, occupying the region known as Broca's area. 

 Fortunately this region can be identified in the case just alluded 

 to ; its area has been measured, and is said to be twice as great 

 as in the anthropoid apes, but only half as large as in man. 1 

 Thus in this one respect Pithecanthropus may be truly regarded 

 as a middle term. If further we are justified in arguing from 

 organ to function, then we may fairly conclude that this primitive 

 precursor of the human race had already acquired the rudiments 

 of vocal speech. 



We have left the most important character to the last : this is 

 the size of the skull-cap, or rather its capacity for containing 

 brains. According to the latest measurements of Dr. Dubois 

 the cranial cavity has a volume of 850 cubic centimetres. We 

 must not omit to point out, however, that this can only be taken 

 as a more or less probable estimate : the skull is far too incom- 

 plete for exact measurement. Dubois' first estimate was 1,000 c.c. 



The cranial capacity of the higher apes is not known to 

 exceed 600 c.c, and that of a healthy human being never falls, so 

 far as existing observations extend, below 880 c.c.; 3 the mean 

 of these two numbers is 740, and this should be the capacity in 

 cubic centimetres of a form standing midway between the lowest 

 man and the highest ape ; but, as we have seen, this limit is 

 already exceeded in Pithecanthropus, even to the extent of 1 10 c.c, 

 and thus, judged by a character which we must regard as of 

 the very highest importance, Pithecanthropus must be included 

 within the limits of the human family. In the long ancestral 

 series which extends upwards from the apes to man he has 

 mounted far more than half way, and only a few steps of the 



' E. Dubois, " Remarks on the Brain-cast of Pithecanthropus erectus," Journ. 

 Anat. and Phys. 1899, vol. xxxiii. pp. 273-6. 



2 Out of 904 Tyrolese skulls one was found with this minimum capacity. It is 

 asserted to be perfectly normal in other respects.— F.Tappeiner, Zeits.f. Ethnologie, 

 1899, xxxi. P. 3°4- 



