182 THE PROBLEM OF EVOLUTION 



justify us in speaking of a missing link , for the 

 highest apes known to us, viz. chimpanzees and 

 gorillas, have a cranial capacity of from 500-600 

 c.cm., the Pithecanthropus erectus has a cranial 

 capacity of 900-950 c.cm., the Neandertal man 

 about 1200 c.cm., and man at the present time 

 from 1500 upwards. We might, said Dr. Plotz, 

 congratulate ourselves upon having not one but 

 two missing links, for the Pithecanthropus and the 

 Neandertal man mark off approximately equal 

 distances in the line connecting gibbons (i.e. chim 

 panzees) and men. 



Dr. Plotz s arguments are based upon false 

 premisses. His statements regarding the cranial 

 capacity of a man do not agree with facts. 

 According to Ranke, among the rural popu 

 lation of a department of Bavaria, the 

 minimum cranial capacity is 1100 cubic centi 

 metres, the maximum 1780; the average for 

 a man is 1503, and for a woman 1335 (Ranke, 

 Der Mensch, i., 2nd ed., p. 409). If, then, 

 the Neandertal man had a cranial capacity of 

 about 1200 cubic centimetres, he had more 

 than the minimum at the present time, and so, 

 from this point of view, he was a genuine man, 

 and not a missing link between man and apes. 

 However, Plotz seems to have given too high a 

 number, as other scientists estimate his cranial 

 capacity as amounting to only 800 c.cm. 



