CHAP. XXIV. OF MAN AND APES COMPARED. 491 



Archenccphala 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 Huxlej^ 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 342 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 cer- 

 tain other equally indubitable facts respecting cranial capa- 

 cities. 



"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 adult 



* Owen, ibid. p. .373. 



