The Ape-Man, in other words, was a heavy, squat,
powerful, bestial-looking animal; of small stature, but above the
pygmy standard; erect in posture, but with clear traces of the
proneness of his ancestor; far removed from the highest ape in
brainpower, but almost equally far removed from the lowest savage
that is known to us. We shall see later that there is some recent
criticism, by weighty authorities, of the earlier statements in
regard to the brain of primitive man. This does not apply to the
Ape-Man of Java. The average cranial capacity (the amount of
brain-matter the skull may contain) of the chimpanzees, the
highest apes, is about 600 cubic centimetres. The average cranial
capacity of the lowest races of men, of moderate stature, is
about 1200. And the cranial capacity of Ape-Man was about 900
It is immaterial whether or no these bones belong to the same
individual. If they do not, we have remains of two or three
individuals of the same intermediate species. Nor does it matter
whether or no this early race is a direct ancestor of the later
races of men, or an extinct offshoot from the advancing human
stock. It is, in either case, an illustration of the intermediate
phase between the ape and man The more important tasks are to
trace the relationship of this early human stock to the apes, and
to discover the causes of its superior evolution.
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