294 THE DOCTRINE OF DESCENT. 



connected with the inaptitude of man, and as a criterion 

 of consanguinity, can hardly be taken into consideration. 



While requiring by logical deduction, a common origin 

 for man and the anthropomorphous apes, the doctrine of 

 Descent, as it is almost superfluous to say, repudiates the 

 senseless demand for intermediate forms between man 

 and the gorilla. What future times may perhaps dis- 

 cover, are intermediate forms which go back to the com- 

 mon point of derivation of the present apes and of man. 

 And thus, notwithstanding the very close relations already 

 discussed, there remains the chasm which is approxi- 

 mately expressed by the comparative weights of the 

 lowest human brain yet measured and the brain of the 

 gorilla. The brain of a bushwoman, normally efficient 

 after the manner of her tribe, amounted to 2 Ibs. 4 ozs. 

 (Cuvier's brain weighed 4 Ibs. 4 ozs.), that of a gorilla 

 may be estimated, from the capacity of the cranium, 

 at about I Ib. 6 ozs., which gives the approximate 

 ratio of 3 : 2. But exalted above the animal as man 

 may feel himself in his bodily nature, in this again he 

 forms no exception, as many animal forms occupy an 

 equally isolated position with reference to their unmis- 

 takably nearest kindred. 



Need we imagine a twofold creation of vertebrate 

 animals, because the lancelet is now separated from the 

 fishes by a whole scale of intermediate forms no longer 

 extant ? The example of the horse is, among others, 

 highly instructive in this case. Let us bear in mind that, 

 in the nature of the limbs and teeth, this genus differs 

 far more from all other extant graminivora than man 

 differs from the ape. Had not the fossil ungulates been 

 found which demonstrate the common origin of the horse 



