He concludes
that the real volume of the Neanderthal brain (in this highest
known specimen) is "slight in comparison with the volume of the
brain lodged in the large heads of to-day," and that the "bestial
or ape-like characters" of the race are not neutralised by this
gross measurement.
*See his article in Anthropologie, Vol. XX. (1909), p. 257. As
Professor Sollas mainly relies on Boule, it is important to see
that there is a very great difference between the two.
We must therefore hesitate to accept the statement that primitive
man had as large a brain, if not a larger brain, than a modern
race. The basis is slender, and the proportion of brain to
body-tissue has not been taken into account. On the other hand,
the remains of this early race are, Professor Sollas says,
"obviously more brutal than existing men in all the other
ascertainable characters by which they differ from them." Nor are
we confined to precarious measurements of skulls. We have the
remains of the culture of this early race, and in them we have a
surer trace of its mental development.
Here again we must proceed with caution, and set aside confused
and exaggerated statements.
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