L. Manouvrier — Pithecanthropus erectus. 215 



diaphysis, indicates certainly a biped attitude. But it does not 

 present a single character permitting one to attribute it to any 

 other species than the human. Yet that invalidates in no way 

 the general conclusion of Mr. Dubois, because on the hypothe- 

 sis, where an anthropoid race would have passed from the atti- 

 tude of a climber to the attitude biped, the transformation of 

 the femur ought to have preceded that of the skull. 



The tooth (3d upper molar) is too large sized, its roots too 

 divergent to admit of its being attributed to man. I have 

 been able to find only one human tooth (in a New Caledonian 

 skull) which presents at once so large a crown and of which the 

 principal axis is at the same time directed from before back- 

 ward, but this is a third lower molar and its roots are not 

 spreading. On the other hand, the grinding surface of the 

 fossil tooth from Java differs much from the known teeth of 

 anthropoids. It should then be considered as having belonged 

 either to an anthropoid race, or to a human, no longer living. 



The skull, according to Mr. Dubois' calculations confirmed 

 by my own, has a capacity of from 900 to 1000 cc . This 

 capacity exceeds by about 400 cc the maximum found among 

 the largest anthropoids. On the other hand, it is too small to 

 be compatible with a normal human intelligence, save among 

 individuals of very small stature having a cranial capacity rela- 

 tively large with reference to their stature and with reference 

 to the average of their race. But, even discarding the teeth 

 and femur' about which there is some doubt, the morphologic 

 characters of the cranium from Java suffice to denote a cere- 

 bral volume relatively very weak. The skull then must have 

 belonged either to a normal individual of a race intermediate 

 between the grand anthropoids and man, or to an abnormal 

 man, to an imbecile, microcephalous for his race. This last 

 supposition has the disadvantage of admitting the extraordi- 

 nary encounter of an anomaly ; if such an encounter is, 

 strictly speaking, possible, it is hardly probable. In short, at 

 least, a skull morphologically intermediate is in question. It is 

 not certain that this skull represents the normal state of a fos- 

 sil human race equally intermediate, but it is still less certain 

 that it is a question of a simple anomaly. Consequently, the 

 hypothesis of Mr. Dubois is scientifically legitimate. 



Such were my first conclusions in January, 1895. But very 

 different conclusions were reached at about the same time in 

 Germany and in England. 



At the Berlin Society of Anthropology,* the question was 

 examined by Kraiise, Waldeyer, Virchow, Luschan, and JSTehr- 



* Zeitschrift fur Ethnolooie, Heft i, 1895. 



