176 



NATURE 



[June 20, 1907 



distance and placed so as to ^wc an accurate 

 side view — becomes when seen in front view the 

 ovoid outline of the base of the frontal boss — 

 the line where the frontal bone is cut b\ a plane at 

 risjht angles to the sagittal plane, and passing through 

 both ophryon and bregma. Similarly the line d, 

 straight in the previous figures, becomes in front view 

 the (white) line across the greatest breadth of the 

 frontal boss. The astonishing difference between the 

 size of this boss or prefrontal area in Pithecanthropus 

 and that of the Greek skull is perhaps even more 

 evident in these than it was in the former figures. 



It should be mentioned that the (<reek skull was 

 selected because it happened to be a favourable 

 example suitable for photographic reproduction, and 

 not because of any special superiority in the crania 

 from south-eastern Europe. Were it otherwise the 

 author's illustrations might perhaps be called as 

 evidence in favour of compulsory Greek ! 



We have directed special attention to these four 

 figures because by their means the essential differences 

 between the enrliest known and the latest human 



ably Palaeolithic, and thus belong to an advanced stage 

 of human evolution with conditions not very different 

 from those of certain savage races both existing and 

 e.xtinct within recent years. 



The rise of the mind of man has finally led to a 

 new " power in Nature, an impevium in imperio, 

 which has proloundly modified not only man's own 

 history but that of the whole living world and the 

 face of the planet on which he e.\ists." He has 

 become "Nature's rebel," and "where Nature says 

 ' Die! ' Man says ' 1 will live.'" Finally, "he has 

 advanced so far and become so unfitted to the earlier 

 rule, that to suppose Man can ' return to Nature ' is as 

 unreasonable as to suppose that an .idult animal can 

 return to its mother's womb." But if man cannot go 

 back he can go forward, and tlie author urges " the 

 conscious and deliberate assumption of his kingdom bv 

 .Man— not as a matter of markets and of increased 

 opportunity for the cosmopolitan dealers in finance — 

 but as an absolute duly, the fulfilment of Man's 

 destiny, a necessity the incidence of which can onlv 

 be deferred and mil avoided." 



Fig. 3- — Pilbecani.ri^pus fr 



crania are so clearly e.xpressed ; but, after all, the most 

 striking fact that emerges is the immense size of the 

 ancient brain and the relatively small increase which 

 has since occurred. " The cranial capacity of many 

 savage races and of some of the most ancient human 

 skulls is only a little less than that of the average 

 man of highly-civilised race. The value of the mental 

 activities in which primitive man differs from the 

 highest apes may be measured in some degree bv the 

 difference in the size of the man's and the ape's br^in ; 

 but the difference in the size of the brain of Isaac 

 Newton and an Australian black-fellow is not in th«' 

 remotest degree proportionate to the difference in 

 their mental qualities. Man, it would seem, at a 

 very remote period attained the extraordinary develop- 

 ment of brain which marked him off from the rest of 

 the animal world, but hns ever since been developing 

 the powers and qualities of this ort^.Tn vithoul in- 

 creasing its size, or m.-iteriaMy allerinp in oiher bodily 

 features." 



It must, however, be nnriin ooinled out 'haf. as the 

 author states, these earliest human crania .nre prob- 



vo. 1964 " y-i] 



.'Vfter tracing some of the chief lines in the past 

 and urging the necessity for determined and active 

 progress, the author proceeds to consider the causes of 

 man's delay. These are found to spring from ignorance 

 of the situation on the part of the masses of the 

 people ; and it is rightly argued that when the inevitable 

 light shall have dawned the democracy will insist on 

 very different qualifications in its public servants. The 

 essay concludes by calling on the University of Oxford 

 not to wait for the pressure that w ill surely come, but 

 to take a foremost part in equipping mankind for 

 further victories ,-nid a speedy entrance into the king- 

 dom ; and in order to play this splendid part, our 

 ancient university is reminded that no new attitude 

 towards learning is required, but a return to the old 

 academic spirit which laid in Oxford the foundation 

 of the Royal Society — this, together with some rel.ax- 

 ;ilion of the grip of the " present curriculum, . . . 

 a mere mushroom "rrowth of the last century." 



It is astonishingly difficult to induce mankind to 

 adopt fundamental changes in the methods of edu 

 catifin. The results of education, although of bound- 





