TO THE LOWER ANIMALS 261 



In the lower Monkeys and in the Lemurs the difference 

 becomes more striking still, the pelvis acquiring an altogether 

 quadrupedal character. 



But now let us turn to a nobler and more characteristic 

 organ that by which the human frame seems to be, and 

 indeed is, so strongly distinguished from all others, 

 I mean the skull. The differences between a Gorilla's 

 skull and a Man's are truly immense (Fig. 16). In the 

 former, the face, formed largely by the massive jaw-bones, 

 predominates over the brain case, or cranium proper : 

 in the latter, the proportions of the two are reversed. In 

 the Man, the occipital foramen, through which passes the 

 great nervous cord connecting the brain with the nerves 

 of the body, is placed just behind the centre of the base 

 of the skull, which thus becomes evenly balanced in the 

 erect posture ; in the Gorilla, it lies in the posterior third 

 of that base. In the Man, the surface of the skull is 

 comparatively smooth, and the supraciliary ridges or brow 

 prominences usually project but little while, in the Gorilla, 

 vast crests are developed upon the skull, and the brow 

 ridges overhang the cavernous orbits, like great penthouses. 



Sections of the skulls, however, show that some of the 

 apparent defects of the Gorilla's cranium arise, in fact, not 

 so much from deficiency of brain case as from excessive 

 development of the parts of the face. The cranial cavity 

 is not ill-shaped, and the forehead is not truly flattened 

 or very retreating, its really well-formed curve being 

 simply disguised by the mass of bone which is built up 

 against it (Fig. 16). 



But the roofs of the orbits rise more obliquely into the 

 cranial cavity, thus diminishing the space for the lower 

 part of the anterior lobes of the brain, and the absolute 

 capacity of the cranium is far less than that of Man. 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 that of the 

 highest Gorilla.* 



* It has been affirmed that Hindoo crania sometimes contain as 

 little as 27 ounces of water, which would give a capacity of about 46 



