THE VARIETIES OF THE HUMAN SPECIES. 23 



the real significance of the facts. I have found normal masculine 

 capacities of 1000 cc. and a little greater, representing small human 

 varieties, not being sporadic and individual phenomena; and, on 

 the other hand, anthropologists have registered for eminent men 

 like Dante, Gauss and others, very mediocre capacities, even very- 

 low, while for ordinary men they have recorded a much higher 

 capacity. I have found in 'Melanesia normally constituted heads 

 absolutely microcephalic, together with megalocephalic heads, 

 belonging to varieties which have the same social value; they are 

 both inferior, some anthropophagous, and live mixed together as 

 one people. That which I have asserted concerning Melanesia 

 may be said of the ancient and modern populations of the Medi- 

 terranean, among which are the Sicilians, the Sardinians, and the 

 inhabitants of Central and Southern Italy; and I do not believe it 

 can be said that there are no signs of human superiority in those 

 regions. There are not, therefore, individual differences so great 

 as from 1000 to 1500 cc, and from 1500 to 2000 cc, but character- 

 istic differences of variety in human forms. The general average 

 I therefore maintain is inexact and still further arbitrary, because 

 it is the average of incommensurate quantities. The exact 

 average is that between individuals of the same variety, and the 

 difference is the true individual variation. 



But there is another error to correct due to the signification 

 which I am able to give to varieties distinguished by means of my 

 method. It is considered by some a demonstrated fact that the 

 cranial capacity has been increased in the course of social evolu- 

 tion from prehistoric epochs to historic times. Eminent men have 

 affirmed it, but I have already placed their conclusions in doubt, 

 because the facts do not appear to me evident and afBrmative. I 

 wrote some years ago :^ '' The most important physical evolution 

 of man would be that which related to the organ of the mental 

 functions, the brain. But the facts are still very doubtful and very 

 obscure which relate to the weight and volume of the brain, and 

 consequently to the cranial capacity. In a recent work of Pro- 

 fessor Schmidt I find that the cranial capacity of the ancient pure 

 Egyptians is 1394 cc. in the masculine and 1257 in the feminine 

 sex; in the pure modern Egyptians it is 1421 in the males, 1206 in 



'^ Human Evolution. Review of Scientific Philosophy, 1888, Milan. 



