Professor Sollas
says that the average cranial capacity of the Eskimo is 1546
cubic centimetres, or nearly that assigned to the average
Parisian.
Clearly the question is very complex, and some of these recent
authorities conclude that the cranial capacity, or volume of the
brain, has no relation to intelligence, and therefore the size of
the Neanderthal skull neither confirms nor disturbs the theory of
evolution. The wise man will suspend his judgment until the whole
question has been fully reconsidered. But I would point out that
some of the recent criticisms are exaggerated. The Gibraltar
skull is estimated by Professor Sollas himself to have a capacity
of about 1260; and his conclusion that it is an abnormal or
feminine skull rests on no positive grounds. The
Chapelle-aux-Saints skull ALONE is proved to have the high
capacity of 1620; and it is as yet not much more than a
supposition that the earlier skulls had been wrongly measured.
But, further, the great French authority, M. Boule, who measured
the capacity of the Chapelle-aux Saints skull, observes* that
"the anomaly disappears" on careful study. He assures us that a
modern skull of the same dimensions would have a capacity of
1800-1900 cubic centimetres, and warns us that we must take into
account the robustness of the body of primitive man.
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