ii WEIGHT OF THE BRAIN. 143 



the difference in weight of brain between the 

 highest and the lowest men is far greater, both 

 relatively and absolutely, than that between the 

 lowest man and the highest ape. The latter, as 

 has been seen, is represented by, say twelve, ounces 

 of cerebral substance absolutely or by 32 : 20 rela- 

 tively; but as the largest recorded human brain 

 weighed between 65 and 66 ounces, the former dif- 

 ference is represented by more than 33 ounces abso- 

 lutely, or by 65 : 32 relatively. Eegarded system- 

 atically, the cerebral differences of man and apes, 

 are not of more than generic value; his Family 

 distinction resting chiefly on his dentition, Lis pel- 

 vis, and his lower limbs. 



Thus, whatever system of organs be studied, 

 the comparison of their modifications in the ape 

 series leads to one and the same result — that the 

 structural differences which separate Man from 

 the Gorilla and the Chimpanzee are not so great 



that keeps accurate time and another that will not go at 

 all, there is therefore a great structural hiatus between 

 the two watches. A hair in the balance-wheel, a little 

 rust on a pinion, a bend in a tooth of the escapement, a 

 something so slight that only the practised eye of the 

 watchmaker can discover it, may be the source of all the 

 difference. 



And believing, as I do, with Cuvier, that the possession 

 of articulate speech is the grand distinctive character of 

 man (whether it be absolutely peculiar to him or not), I 

 find it very easy to comprehend, that some equally incon- 

 spicuous structural difference may have been the primary 

 cause of the immeasurable and practically infinite diver- 

 gence of the Human from the Simian Stirps. 



