BIOLOGICAL BEGINNINGS 37 



and foot have nearly the same proportions to one another and to the spine, 

 as in Man. 



In the Spider monkey (AteJes) the leg is longer than the spine, and the 

 arm than the leg; and, finally, in that remarkable Lemurine form, the Indri, 

 {Lichanoms) the leg is about as long as the spinal column, while the arm is 

 not more than ^Msths of its length; the hand having rather less and the 

 foot rather more, than one third the length of the spinal column. 



These examples might be greatly multiplied, but they suffice to show 

 that, in whatever proportion of its limbs the Gorilla differs from Alan, the 

 other Apes depart still more widely from the Gorilla and that, consequently, 

 such differences of proportion can have no ordinal value. 



But now let us turn to a nobler and more characteristic organ — that by 

 which the human frame seems to be and indeed is, so strongly distinguished 

 from all others, — I mean the skull. The differences between a Gorilla's 

 skull and a Man's are truly immense. In the former, the face, formed largely 

 by the massive jaw-bones, predominates over the brain case, or cranium 

 proper: in the latter, the proportions of the two are reversed. In the Man, 

 the occipital foramen, through which passes the great nervous cord con- 

 necting the brain with the nerves of the body, is placed just behind the 

 centre of the base of the skull, which thus becomes evenly balanced in the 

 erect posture; in the Gorilla it lies in the posterior third of that base. In 

 the Man, the surface of the skull is comparatively smooth, and the supra- 

 ciliary ridges or brow prominences usually project but little — while, in 

 the Gorilla, vast crests are developed upon the skull, and the brow ridges 

 overhang the cavernous orbits, like great penthouses. 



Sections of the skulls, however, show that some of the apparent defects 

 of the Gorilla's cranium arise, in fact, not so much from deficiency of 

 brain case as from excessive development of the parts of the face. The 

 cranial cavity is not ill-shaped, and the forehead is not truly flattened or 

 very retreating, its really well-formed curve being simply disguised by 

 the mass of bone which is built up against it. 



But the roofs of the orbits rise more obliquely into the cranial cavity, 

 thus diminishing the space for the lower part of the anterior lobes of the 

 brain, and the absolute capacity of the cranium is far less than that of Man. 

 So far as I am aware, no human cranium belonging to an adult man has 

 yet been observed with a less cubical capacity than 61 cubic inches, the 

 smallest cranium observed in any race of men by Morton, measuring 63 

 cubic inches: while, on the other hand, the most capacious Gorilla skull 

 yet measured has a content of not more than 34^/4 cubic inches. Let us 

 assume, for simpHcity's sake, that the lowest Man's skull has twice the 

 capacity of the highest Gorilla. 



No doubt, this is a very striking difference, but it loses much of its ap- 

 parent systematic value, when viewed by the light of certain other equally 

 indubitable facts respecting cranial capacities. 



