458 PITHECANTHROPUS ELtEGTTJS. 



but be found likewise in some other genus. Only an examination of 

 the entire skeleton could give a complete solution to this question. 



According to the relative proportions of these parts they can not both 

 have belonged to an ape. For an ape with such a cranial capacity 

 would, as we have seen, have been a giant, whose femur would certainly 

 have been much larger than twice the size of that of a siamaug. But a 

 man with a cranial capacity of 900 c.cm. would have a shorter femur; 

 for all men, except microcephali, that have so low a capacity as this 

 have a much smaller stature than that of 165 to 170 cm., which is the 

 height of the individual, as calculated from the length of this femur 

 according to human proportions. This is again an evidence that the 

 individual in question was, in the anatomical sense, neither an ape nor 

 a man. 



With the length and breadth measurements of the skull, however, the 

 length of the femur agrees very well, both from a human and anthro- 

 poid point of view. A man with a skullcap of these dimensions could 

 well have had a femur of that size, and if we conceive the proportions 

 of a siamang to be doubled, the length and breadth of the skull and the 

 length and breadth of the femur will exactly correspond with that of 

 Pithecan thropus. 



Kbthing contradicts the. view that the possessor of this cranium had 

 a body to which this femur belonged. The skull requires exactly such 

 a femur and no other. 



As, therefore, from different points of view, probability speaks most 

 strongly in favor of the common origin of these fragments, it is carry- 

 ing skepticism too far to longer doubt that both of them, and the teeth 

 as well, belonged to one skeleton. 



I believe that it now hardly admits of a doubt that this upright-walk- 

 ing ape-man, as I have called him, and as he is really shown to be after 

 the most searching examination, represents a so-called transition form 

 between men and apes, such as paleontology has often taught us to 

 recognize between other families of mammals; and I do not hesitate 

 now, any moro than 1 formerly did, to regard this Pithecanthropus 

 erectus as the immediate progenitor of the human race. This is my 

 conviction after the most careful testing of the matter, and has only 

 become stronger after having submitted the specimens to many 

 anatomists. 



The exact position to be assigned to the ape-man in a system is more 

 or less a matter of taste. According to the anatomical characters ordi- 

 narily used to separate the groups of mammals, we must at any rate 

 exclude it from the genus Homo. Unless we considerably change and 

 extend the characters that have hitherto been considered good for the 

 family of the Ilominidw, it can not even be admitted there. Quite the 

 same may be said of the Siiniidai and its species. 



The relation of man and of Pithecanthropus to extinct and living apes 

 are here shown in the form of a family tree (tig. 4). 



