Page:The Last link.djvu/36

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THE LAST LINK

skull-cap also is very human, but with very prominent eyebrow ridges, like those of the famous Neanderthal cranium. It is certainly not that of an idiot. It had an estimated cranial capacity of about 1,000 cubic centimetres—that is to say, much more than that of the largest ape, which possesses not more than 600 c.c. The crania of female Australians and Veddahs measure not more than 1,100, some even less than 1,000 c.c.; but, as these Veddah women stand only about 4 feet 9 inches high, the computed cranial capacity of the much taller Pithecanthropus is comparatively very low indeed.[1]

The final result of the long discussion at Leyden was that, of twelve experts present, three held that the fossil remains belonged to a low race of man; three declared them to be those of a man-like ape of great size;

  1. On the day after the delivery of this address Dr. Dubois exhibited the cranium of Pithecanthropus, from which he had removed the stony matrix which filled the inside, in order to examine the impression left by the cerebral convolutions. He was able to show that they also are very human, and more highly developed than those of the recent apes.