492 BRAIN OF MAN AND APE COMPARED. CHAP. xxiv. 



adult male human cranium surpasses the largest of the 

 gorillas (62 32J = 27 J). Secondly, the adult crania of 

 gorillas which have as yet been measured, differ among 

 themselves by nearly one-third, the maximum capacity being 

 34-5 cubic inches, the minimum 24 cubic inches; and, 

 thirdly, after making all due allowance for difference of size, 

 the cranial capacities of some of the lower apes fall nearly as 

 much, relatively, below those of the higher apes, as the latter 

 fall below man.' * 



Are we then to conclude, that differences in mental power 

 have no intimate connection with the comparative volume of 

 the brain ? We cannot draw such an inference, because the 

 highest and most civilised races of Man exceed in the average 

 of their cranial capacity the lowest races, the European 

 brain, for example, being larger than that of the negro, and 

 somewhat more convoluted and less symmetrical, and those 

 apes, on the other hand, which approach nearest to Man in the 

 form and volume of their brain being more intelligent than 

 the Lemurs, or still lower divisions of the mammalia, such as 

 the Eodents and Marsupials, which have smaller brains. But 

 the extraordinary intelligence of the elephant and dog, so far 

 exceeding that of the larger part of the Quadrumana, although 

 their brains are of a type much more remote from the human, 

 may serve to convince us how far we are as yet from under 

 standing the real nature of the dependence of intellectual 

 superiority on cerebral structure. 



Professor Kolleston, in reference to this subject, remarks, 

 that ' even if it were to be proved that the differences between 

 Man's brain and that of the ape's are differences entirely of 

 quantity, there is no reason, in the nature of things, why so 

 many and such weighty differences in degree should not 

 amount to a difference in kind. 



* Huxley, On the Eelation of Man to the rest cf the Animal Kingdom. 

 London, 1863. 



