1910-11.] The Place in Nature of the Tasmanian Aboriginal. 61 
that in the gorilla the position at which the maximum height of the skull 
is situated is farther back than it is in either primitive or recent man. 
Seeing that under this observation Pithecanthropus erectus is at one end of 
the scale, with the anthropoid ape at the other, with primitive and recent 
man occupying intermediate positions between the two, we can only infer 
that the precise position at which the calvarial height occurs cannot be a 
point of any very great evolutionary importance. 
It is also important to note that the anthropoid ape which stands nearest 
to man most frequently in this work is the chimpanzee. Out of a possible 
twenty-two observations, the chimpanzee ranks next to man in fourteen 
instances, that is to say, in 63 '6 per cent. Of the remaining anthropoid 
apes, the gorilla occurs four times, the gibbon three times, and the orang 
twice. The apparent discrepancy in the numbers is due to the fact that in 
one instance the gibbon and chimpanzee rank equally, and therefore count 
twice. 
These observations are particularly interesting in view of Keith’s work 
as to the anthropoid ape which stands most nearly related to man. Keith 
(19) has shown that man has 396 structural points in common with the 
chimpanzee, 385 with the gorilla, 272 with the orang, and only 188 with 
the gibbon. Our work supports Keith in regarding the chimpanzee as 
man’s nearest relative, with the gorilla second. The paucity of our obser- 
vations compared with Keith’s will account for the slight discrepancy 
between his observations and ours as to the relative positions occupied by 
the gibbon and the orang. 
No less instructive is an analysis of the relative positions occupied by 
Pithecanthropus and the nearest anthropoid. In seven instances out of a 
possible twenty -five, Pithecanthropus erectus actually occupies a lower evol- 
utionary position than does the nearest anthropoid ape. These instances 
are of sufficient importance as to warrant their being specifically mentioned. 
They are as follow : — 
1. The calvarial height index is less in Pithecanthropus erectus than in 
the nearest anthropoid — the chimpanzee. 
2. The distance of the foot-point of the calvarial height from the 
glabella is farther forwards in Pithecanthropus than in the nearest anthro- 
poid — the gorilla. 
3. The calvarial height foot-point positional index is markedly less in 
Pithecanthropus than in the gorilla — a point to which we have already 
directed attention. 
4. The frontal angle is less in Pithecanthropus than in the nearest 
anthropoid — the chimpanzee. 
