DISCUSSION 183 



The speaker wished to show that the cranial 

 capacities supplied us with the best means of deter- 

 mining the position of this man-ape of the tertiary 

 period, and of the Neandertal man. Since man 

 has walked upright and the Pithecanthropus 

 must have walked upright because of the shape 

 of his femur 1 natural breeding has tended to a 

 development of the brain, rather than to perfecting 

 the rest of the body. As a matter of fact, at the 

 present time, we see that the highest and the 

 lowest races among men are distinguished chiefly 

 by the difference in their cranial capacity. 



Dr. Plotz's theory is not supported by facts. 

 Whereas among Europeans the maximum 

 cranial capacity is under 2000 cubic cm. the 

 highest number given by Welcker is 1870 

 Virchow found that the capacity of an average 

 male skull in New Britain was 2010 cubic cm. 

 The smallest known capacity is that of 

 a female Wedda skull in Ceylon, which 

 measured only 960 cubic cm. (Ranke, Der 

 Mensch, i., 2nd ed., p. 409). This approaches 

 very closely that of the Pithecanthropus, even 

 if we accept 800 cubic cm. as being the correct 

 number ; but it must be borne in mind that the 

 Weddas are dwarfs, and the Pithecanthropus 

 was a giant ape, and so Dr. Plotz's whole argu- 



1 Whether this is really the case requires examination with Rontgen- 

 rays, by means of WalkhofPs method. Until this has been done, it is not 

 certain that he walked upright, although it is probable. 



