CHAP. xxiv. OF MAN AND APES COMPARED. 491 



sub-class Archencephala is to be retained, it must depend on 

 differences in degree, as, for example, the vast increase of the 

 brain in Man, as compared with that of the highest ape, ' in 

 absolute size, and the still greater superiority in relative size 

 to the bulk and weight of the body.' * 



* If we ask why this character, though well known to Cuvier 

 and other great anatomists before our time, was not consi 

 dered by them to entitle Man, physically considered, to claim 

 a more distinct place in the group called Primates, than that 

 of a separate order, or, according to others, a separate genus 

 or family only, we shall find the answer thus concisely 

 stated by Professor Huxley in his new work, before cited : 

 * So far as I am aware, no human cranium belonging to 

 an adult man has yet been observed with a less cubical 

 capacity than 62 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^ cubic 

 inches. Let us assume, for simplicity's sake, that the 

 lowest man's skull has twice the capacity of the highest 

 gorilla's. No doubt this is a very striking difference, but 

 it loses much of its apparent, systematic value, when viewed 

 by the light of certain other equally indubitable facts re 

 specting cranial capacities. 



' The first of these is, that the difference in the volume of 

 the cranial cavity of different races of mankind is far greater, 

 absolutely, than that between the lowest man and the highest 

 ape while, relatively, it is about the same; for the largest 

 human skull measured by Morton contained 114 cubic 

 inches, that is to say, had very nearly double the capacity of 

 the smallest, while its absolute preponderance of over 50 

 cubic inches is far greater than that by which the lowest 



* Owen, ibid. p. 373." 



