Prehistoric manDuckworth, W. L. H. (Wynfrid Laurence Henry)
History
Prehistoric man
Duckworth, W. L. H. (Wynfrid Laurence Henry)
Prehistoric peoples
One of the most remarkable researches ever published upon these subjects
is due to a group of scientists associated with Professor Berry of
Melbourne University. In this place, only the most important of their
memoirs (1910) can be called in evidence. In those particular
publications, the initial objective was an attempt to measure the degree
of resemblance between different types of skull. That endeavour may be
roughly illustrated by reference to Fig. 26, in which tracings of various
skull-outlines are adjusted to a conventional base-line. Should a
vertical line be drawn from the mid-point of the base-line so as to cut
the several contours, the vertical distances between the successive
curves could be measured. The distance separating Pithecanthropus (_P.E._
of the figure) from that of the corresponding curve for the Spy skull No.
1 (Spy 1 of the figure) is clearly less than the distance between the
curves for the second Spy skull (Spy 2) and the Papuan native.
[Illustration: Fig. 26. Outline tracings of skulls reduced in size to a
common dimension, viz. the line _Gl_--_Op_, representing
a base-line of the brain-case. _Pe_, Pithecanthropus.
_Papua_, a New Guinea native. _Hl_, _Sm_, _At_ are from
skulls of monkeys. (After Dubois.)]
But Mr Cross used a much more delicate method, and arrived at results
embodied in the figure (27) reproduced from his memoir. A most graphic
demonstration of those results is provided in this chart. Yet it must be
added, that the Galley Hill skull, although shewn in an intermediate
position, should almost certainly be nearer the upper limit. This
criticism is based upon the conviction that many of the measurements upon
which the results are dependent, assign to the Galley Hill skull a
lowlier status than it originally possessed before it became distorted
(posthumously). Again the Pithecanthropus is apparently nearer to the
Anthropoid Apes than to Mankind of to-day. Let it be noticed however that
this is not necessarily in contradiction with the opinion expressed above
(p. 128 line 2). For Mr Cross' diagram is based upon cranial
measurements, whereas the characters of the thigh-bone of Pithecanthropus
tend to raise it in the general scale of appreciation. On the whole then,
the evolutionary hypothesis seems to receive support from three
independent sources of evidence.
[Illustration: Fig. 27. (From Cross.)]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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