176 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tion of volume while the skull becomes relatively diminished, 

 partly because the molars of the second dentition need room and 

 push the jaw forward. 



I expect to describe hereafter how the relations between the base 

 of the skull and the base of the face along the naso-basilar plane 

 change, on either side, with the adult as compared with the infant, 

 the angles which craniometry marks in that part. The facial an- 

 gle, which I mention because it has a certain popularity, is larger 

 in the young ape than in the infant man. The infantile forms of 

 the young ape which M. Vogt speaks of are partly found in the 

 adult woman. They also characterize the male sex of certain 

 races, like the Andamans, which have for that reason been desig- 

 nated as infantine. 



There is one characteristic implied in Prof. Vogt's argument 

 which seems to bear more favorably to his thesis. It is that the 

 young ape, the orang or chimpanzee, for example, is more intelli- 

 gent than the adult. This, we might say, is because it is descended 

 from a more intelligent ancestor than recent apes. But greater 

 intelligence is a rule with all young animals, as well, if we take 

 the circumstances into account, as with man. The brain is at that 

 period larger in proportion to the body ; it is in some sense virgin, 

 more impressionable ; it grows excessively, and asks only to ab- 

 sorb, to work, to turn the blood it receives to account. What is 

 more marvelous than the way our children learn to talk, read, 

 and write ? Would we adults be capable of the amount of rapid 

 memorizing which the mass of words and ideas inculcated into 

 them at that age exacts ? Young Australians are equal to Euro- 

 peans in the schools, and retain languages with extraordinary 

 facility ; but, as age comes on, their savage nature reappears, they 

 take off their clothes, they join their like again, and they mani- 

 fest no more intelligence than if they had never been among the 

 whites. If at our age we appear so capacious, intellectually speak- 

 ing, it is because we have been accumulating for many years, be- 

 cause we reason in great part by habit, automatically ; because 

 we are incessantly excited by the struggle for existence, by the 

 society of our likes, and by the use of language, which apes do not 

 possess. M. Vogt's last argument, that the young ape is more 

 human than the adult ape, does not, therefore, convince me. 



I have mentioned the different opinions in view, positive and 

 negative, concerning the origin of man. Are there not other pos- 

 sible ones ? Although I have made many objections to M. Vogt's 

 theory, his uncertainty, so remarkable on the part of a man who 

 is usually not afraid to speak out, has made me reflect. I have 

 asked what could this stock be which he speaks of, common to the 

 ape and to man, and which is not lemuroid ? While he leaves 

 his readers still in suspense, it is easy to see his tendency. This 



