I90 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 



we take, the comparison of their modifications in 

 the series of apes leads to the same result : that 

 the anatomical differences that separate man from 

 the gorilla and chimpanzee are not so great as 

 those that separate the gorilla from the lower apes." 

 When we compare the skeleton of a man with the 

 skeleton of the so-called anthropoid apes we find 

 a startling similarity. Except for the length of 

 the arms and the size of the hands, the skeleton 

 of the gibbon might pass for the skeleton of a man. 

 In every instance, however, the brain-case is a 

 differentiating feature ; and even if we take the 

 least type of human skull at present known and 

 the highest type of ape-skull known, between the 

 two there is great disparity. 



Still, our brain-cases will not save us, for transi- 

 tional forms of skull between monkey and man 

 have been discovered. The most famous of these 

 transitional skulls is the fossil skull discovered by 

 a military surgeon in Java. This skull is supposed 

 to have belonged to an erect ape-man — the kind 

 of creature from which man is believed by most 

 biologists to be directly descended. 



It must be understood that man is not supposed 

 to be descended directly from any of the anthropoid 

 apes at present existent : he and the anthropoid 

 apes are merely cousins ; he and they are supposed 

 to be branches of a common stem ; and the skull 



