In conclusion, we may say that, while there is a general resemblance
between the human body and that of an anthropoid ape, there is,
likewise, a particular divergence—“there is no bone, be it ever so
small, nay, not even the smallest particle of a bone, in which the
general agreement in structure and function would pass over into real
identity.” (Ranke, _op. cit._, vol. I, p. 437.) Hence Virchow declares
that “the differences between man and monkey are so wide that almost
any fragment is sufficient to diagnose them.” (Smithson. Inst. Rpt. for
1889, p. 566.) These differences are so considerable as to preclude the
possibility of a _direct_ genealogical connection between man and any
known type of ape or monkey—“The testimony of comparative anatomy,” to
quote Bumüller, “is decidedly against the theory of man’s descent from
the ape.” (“Mensch oder Affe?” p. 59.) Ranke has somewhere called man
a brain-animal, and this sums up the chief difference, which marks off
the human body from all bestial organisms. In the ape the brain weighs
only 100th part of the weight of its body, whereas in man the brain has
a weight equivalent to the 37th part of the weight of the human body.
The cranial capacity of the largest apes ranges from 500 to 600 c.cm.,
while the average cranial capacity in man is 1500 c.cm. Moreover, the
human brain is far more extensively convoluted within the brain-case
than that of an ape, so much so that the surface or cortical area of
the human brain is four times as great as that of the ape’s brain.
Thus Wundt, in his “Grundzüge der physiologischen Psychologie,” cites
H. Wagner as assigning to man a brain surface of from 2,196 to 1,877
sq. cm., but a cortical area of only 535 sq. cm. in the case of an
orang-outang. (Cf. English Translation by Titchener, vol. I, p. 286.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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