Eugène Dubois

“ But the size also is not adapted to that of the human skull. For it is quite inadmissible to suppose that we are here dealing with a microcephalous skull, not only on account of the great improbability of such a view, but also because its form is quite different. We are certainly acquainted with normal human skulls of an equally small capacity; but these appear less "bestial" the smaller they get, while, on the contrary, the very "bestial" Neanderthal and Spy skulls are very large. ”

“ Those who have followed the history of the Neanderthal skull are aware that there has never existed regarding it such divergence of opinion as to its man- or ape-like qualities as has arisen concerning the Pithecanthropus. The two opposed views in that case were: Ape-like man or diseased man; the native of the Neanderthal has from the very first always been considered as an undoubted, real man. The human character of the Pithecanthropus is, however, very questionable. The skull of the gibbon almost doubled in size would not be very different from it in external appearance. ”

“ I think that the ape-like form of the skullcap and its capacity, too small for a man, can not be brought to harmonize with such a conception. Even Cunningham, who has examined the skull, and is convinced that it is human, finds that its ape-like characters greatly predominate, and that there is nothing human about it except its excessive size for an ape. ”

“ For instance, as to the skull, a few have believed that it is human, although of much more ape-like appearance than hitherto known, while others have considered it the skull of an ape far more human in character than any previously discovered. It is remarkable that only a few have believed in a third possibility, intermediate between these two views, viz, that we have before us here a transition form between apes and men that is neither man nor ape. ”

“ Disregarding this, some believe that the skull may have belonged to a true ape. If we should imagine the skull of Hylobates agilis to have somewhat more than doubled its mass, we should have a skull of a similar great ape. But if in actual fact a Hylobates had reached such a size, it is quite certain that his cranial capacity would not have increased in the same degree, for we continually find in the most diverse families that large animals have relatively smaller brains than smaller allied species. ”

“ If we adopt the view that the skullcap is that of an ape, and, indeed, as must be acknowledged, that of the most man-like of all, but that the femur is that of a man, then both of these fragments must have been deposited at the same time in what was very probably an early Tertiary bed. ”

“ With the length and breadth measurements of the skull, however, the length of the femur agrees very well, both from a human and anthropoid point of view. A man with a skullcap of these dimensions could well have had a femur of that size, and if we conceive the proportions of a siamang to be doubled, the length and breadth of the skull and the length and breadth of the femur will exactly correspond with that of Pithecanthropus. ”

“ Now, on the one hand, human bones have never been recognized below the Middle Pleistocene, much less as low as the Tertiary, and, on the other, but few remains of apes have been found, and these are much smaller, more significant, and by no means as human in character as the skullcap in question. ”

“ The unequal wear of their crowns and the considerable difference in their size are appearances that can often be seen both in the skulls of men and of apes. Both have very strongly diverging roots, such as others as well as myself acknowledge never to have seen in human molars. Only exceptionally are there found in man upper molars with a crown of such great size. I measured on a skull from New South Wales, in Virchow's laboratory, the transverse and sagittal diameters of a left second upper molar, finding it 15.5 by 12.5 mm., and those of a third left upper molar, finding it 15 to 10.5 mm. ”

“ By the removal of the siliceous matter from the interior of the skullcap, which was at first partially and afterwards quite completely effected, it was shown that the sulcus transversus of the occipital bone, which, as place of attachment for the tentorium, marks the boundary between the cerebrum and the cerebellum, lies at about the same relative distance from the superior curved line of the bone as it does in the gibbons. ”

“ In the human femur the most projecting portion of the popliteal region is in the neighborhood of the lateral lip of the linea aspera. In the fossil femur, on the contrary, that lip is situated more on the lateral surface of the shaft. After examining hundreds of human femora, Manouvrier could find only two that had a somewhat similar shape. It is therefore a very rare form in man. With the gibbon a similar form normally occurs, the median convexity in this species being, however, somewhat higher. ”

“ In man the strong forward inclination of the nuchal portion of the occipital bone is considered to have a relation to the upright position. I can not see why it should not be interpreted in the same way in the fossil skull under consideration. ”

“ The exact position to be assigned to the ape-man in a system is more or less a matter of taste. According to the anatomical characters ordinarily used to separate the groups of mammals, we must at any rate exclude it from the genus Homo. ”

“ The smaller lower apes very much surpass in this respect the large anthropoid apes, and the gibbons possess, in proportion to their bodily weight, at least twice as much brain as the great anthropoids. ”

“ The view that these fragments were derived from different individuals of one and the same race has also very little to support it. After explorations which have been extended for five years over hundreds of square kilometers of exposed strata more than 350 meters thick and containing everywhere a numerous and homogeneous fauna, I have found, with but one possible exception, nothing which could be referred to this or any similar race. ”

“ Hepburn has pointed out to me, produce the median convexity of the entire popliteal region which we find in the fossil femur. In man the popliteal space becomes flattened by reason of the wide separation of the medial and lateral muscles in this region. ”

“ Ca, from behind.
great as that between bones of the same name in different but somewhat related species of mammals having a similar locomotion, as, for instance, Colobus and Semnopithecus, Cervus and Antilope. The most important difference concerns the form of the diaphyses in the popliteal region. It is much rounder than in man. The planum popliteum is therefore less extensive and more convex, so that exactly in its middle a kind of swelling extends as far as the neighborhood of the condyles. ”