178 



THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



which evolutionists tell us to expect now and then, as reminders of 

 our early ancestry. 



The writer was fortunate enough to secure a model of the head of a 

 microcephalic idiot taken immediately after death. This is represent- 

 ed in Fig. 14. There are a few preliminary observations about this 

 which arrest the attention. Note first of all that the upper and lower 

 portions of the face markedly converge towards the tip of the promin- 

 ent beak-like nose, thus imparting a characteristic bird-like appear- 

 ance to the countenance. It is important to notice how feebly devel- 

 oped the chin is. In a previous paper^ I have already referred to the 

 significance of this in association with the gift of speech, for most of 

 these microcephalic idiots are devoid of the power of articulation. 



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SAu// 



Fig. 15. Shows the comparison between the outline of the microcephalic head illus- 

 trated in Fig. 14 and the outline of the Java skull. The two are drawn to 

 the same scale, the reduction being to the extent of one half in each case. 

 Note that the outline of the microcephalic head very intimately corresponds 

 to, though it is very decidedly less than that of the Java calvarla. This 

 Fig. shows that there can actually be found to exist at the present day 

 reversions of the skull of man back to the stage of the Java man-ape, and 

 not only that, but even comparing unfavourably both in dimensions and 

 capacity with his cranium. This fact would sugge'st that Pithecanthropus 

 is an ancestral stage in the evolution of man. 



Note finally that the ear is markedly malformed, and is situated relat- 

 ively far back on the side of the head. The most striking fact, how- 

 ever, is the extraordinary lack of frontal development. To render 

 this point even more emphatic I devised Fig. 15 which shows the com- 

 parison between the outline of this head and the outline of the Java 



^ Canadian Magazine, Oct., 1917. 



