THE ORIGIN OF THE HUMAN BODY 315 



not of itself entitle the Pithecanthropus to be regarded as a 

 connecting link between man and the anthropoid apes. In 

 all such comparisons, it is the relative, and not the absolute, 

 size of the brain, which is important. The elephant for ex- 

 ample, has as large a brain as a man, but the elephant's brain 

 is small, in comparison to its huge body. The brain of a mouse 

 is insignificant, as regards absolute size, but, considered in 

 relation to the size of the mouse's body, it is as large as, if not 

 larger than, that of an elephant, and hence the elephant, for 

 all the absolute magnitude of its brain, is no more "intelligent" 

 than a mouse. As we have already seen, man's brain is 

 unique, not for its absolute size, but for its weight and enor- 

 mous cortical surface, considered with reference to the com- 

 paratively small organism controlled by the brain in question. 

 It is this excess in size which manifests the specialization of 

 the human brain for psychic functions. The Weddas, a dwarf 

 race of Ceylon, have a far smaller cranial capacity than the 

 Neanderthal Man, their average cranial capacity being 960 

 c.cm., but they are human pigmies, whereas the Pithecan- 

 thropus, according to Richard Hertwig, was a giant ape. "The 

 fragments," says Hertwig, "were regarded by some as belong- 

 ing to a connecting link between apes and man, Pithecan- 

 thropus erectus Dubois; by others they were thought to be 

 the remains of genuine apes, and by others those of genuine 

 men. The opinion that is most probably correct is that the 

 fragments belonged to an anthropoid ape of extraordinary size 

 and enormous cranial capacity." ("Lehrbuch der Zoologie," 

 7th ed.) 



Prof. J. H. McGregor essays fo make a gradational series 

 out of conjectural brain casts of a large ape, the Pithe- 

 canthropus and the Neanderthal Man, in the ratio of 6: 9: 12, 

 this ratio being based upon the estimated cranial capacities of 

 the skulls in question. In a previous chapter, we have seen 

 that such symmetrically graded series have little force as an 

 argument for common descent. In the present instance, how- 

 ever, the gradation gives a wrong impression of the real state 



