Page:Palæolithic Man and Terramara Settlements in Europe.djvu/249

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PITHECANTHROPUS ERECTUS
189

third of the shaft, an irregular exostosis, due to some accidental cause during lifetime.

Such are the main facts on which Dr Dubois bases his theory that these four skeleton-bones belonged to a creature which was neither man nor ape, but a transitional form between the two (eine menschenæceænliche Uebergangsform}. It is not my intention to follow the author over the wide domain from which he has culled the arguments with which he supports his theory.

figure(s): 64

FIG.64. Profile outlines of the Skulls of Pithecanthropus erectus (Pe), a Papuan man, the Spy men, a Microcephal (Cu micro), Hylobates leuciscus (HI), Semnopithecus maurus (Sm), and Anthropopithecus troglodytes (At). (Dr Dubois.).

Gl, Glabella; Op, 0pisthion ; Ln, Linea nuchæ superior ; Lni, Linea nuchæ inferior.

Suffice it to say that, by an elaborate series of measurements, comparisons, and calculations, he has shown that the brain capacity of the Java skull ranks considerably lower than that of man, but higher than that of any of the anthropoid apes. Some idea of the value of the results thus obtained may be gathered from an inspection of the accompanying diagram (Fig. 64), in which the profile outline of the skulls of a Papuan, the fossil "men of Spy," a microcephal, and a number of apes are superimposed so as to exhibit at a glance the expansion of their respective cranial arches.