with Ape Skit lis. 



The Cranium. 



"We come now to consider the brain case. The largest cranial 

 capacity of an ape is 623 cubic centimetres, as measured by 

 Topinard. The smallest human cranium measured by Professor 

 Flower, and that of an adult female of the tribe called Veddahs, 

 inhabiting a mountain in Ceylon, is 960 centimetres. So that 

 the lowest human* cranium yet found exceeds the highest ape 

 cranium by about one-third. Professor Flower's next lowest 

 are those of Andamanese, in whom the cranial capacity is 1,184 

 centimetres, about double that of the ape referred to. The 

 Andamanese, however, as also the Veddahs, are veiy diminutive 

 people, and, therefore, their crania are necessardy proportionately 

 small. Australian Aborigines, however, are not small in stature, 

 and, therefore, the capacity of their crania may be cited as that 

 of the lowest human types, namely, 1,259 centimetres. This is 

 considerably larger than double of the highest ape. And from 

 this cranial capacity there are all degrees of development up to 

 about 1,600 cubic centimetres in European races. 



The occipital foramen, or opening upon the base of the skull, 

 where the spinal cord enters, is in the apes situated far to the 

 rear, while in highly-developed human skulls it is almost central. 

 In low types of human skulls its position so far resembles that 

 of the apes as to be situated considerably behind the centre. 



There are the same number of bones in the skulls of apes and 

 monkeys as in those of man, and the general character of these 

 is the same in both, but there are differences arising from the 

 degree of development of these in relation to one another. Not 

 only is this the case with regard to the bones of the face, but to 

 those of the cranium, or brain-case. For example, some of the 

 ape skulls have enormous brow-ridges, ridges along the middle 

 line of the crown and across the skull in the occipital region. 

 These ridges are for the attachment of strong jaw and neck 

 muscles, and are absent in the human skull, though the represen- 

 tatives of some of them are there. Eemarkably well-developed 

 brow-ridges are seen on some of the lowest types of human 

 skulls, as, for instance, that found in the Neanderthal cave, 

 Dusseldorf; also the skull from the Engis cave near Liege. 

 Then the crest on the middle line of the gorilla's skull, called the 

 sagittal crest, is represented by the two temporal ridges on either 

 side of the human skull, which form the origin of the same jaw 

 muscles as does the sagittal crest of the gorilla and dog. The 

 occipital crest of the ape and dog has its counterpart in the 

 human skull, in the shape of the occipital protuberance, or inion, 

 which in some inferior types is large and conspicuous, though 



