In the comparative study of the human organization, and that of anthropoid apes, it is important to examine sections, and especially longitudinal sections, of characteristic skulls.[46] Virchow has caused drawings to be made, from specimens in the Berlin Museum, of a gorilla, a chimpanzee, an orang-utan, and an Australian woman. The gorilla’s skull, when compared with the Australian’s, is so narrow that it looks as if compression had been applied to it; and yet the Australian skull is extremely small in comparison with that of men in general, since its cubic space is only 1150 ccm. In the gorilla[47]--at least in the old male, from which the drawing is taken--the immense size of the frontal sinuses, and the swellings which cover them, together with the strongly developed jaw, increase the impression of size. But, as Virchow observes, “all which adds to the size of the skull is bestial, and not human.” It is much the same in the orang-utan. Only in the chimpanzee the cubic space of the skull may be somewhat more favourably compared with that of the human skull. It approaches in size to that of a microcephalic native of the Rhein-Pfalz (of which an illustration is also given), which ranks a good deal below the Australian skull, and approximates more closely to the simian type. The internal space of the skulls of an adult female gorilla or orang may also be more favourably compared with those of men. [Illustration: Fig. 39.--Sagittal section through the skull of a bam-chimpanzee.] We have already mentioned the presence of extensive sinuses and cells in the skulls of anthropoids, exceeding those of human skulls, and this is apparent in the accompanying illustration of a longitudinal section of the skull of a chimpanzee carried through its centre (Fig. 39). The length of this skull between the nasal partition and the most prominent part of the occipital bone is 128 mm.; that of the internal space is 108 mm. 10 mm. of this difference is due to the depth of the frontal sinuses, and the rest is owing to the thickness of the bony part of the skull. In an aged male gorilla, the first measurement is 153 mm., the second 115 mm. In another aged gorilla the measurements were respectively 183 mm. and 117 mm. In a still more aged male orang they were respectively 140 mm. and 114 mm. The comparative thinness of the centre of the squamous occipital portion is to be noted in the aged gorilla male. In the adult chimpanzee the large cells of the squamous portion of the temporal bone extend into this bone, and indeed without interruption into the parietal bone adjoining it. For such investigations the thin and light bones of individuals which have lived a wild life are more suitable than the heavy and fat specimens which have died after prolonged confinement.