evidence that it is so, in the fact that, whenever an adult
male European has a skull less than nineteen inches in circumference, or
has less than sixty-five cubic inches of brain, he is invariably
idiotic. When we join with this the equally undisputed fact, that great
men--those who combine acute perception with great reflective power,
strong passions, and general energy of character, such as Napoleon,
Cuvier, and O'Connell, have always heads far above the average size, we
must feel satisfied that volume of brain is one, and perhaps the most
important, measure of intellect; and this being the case, we cannot fail
to be struck with the apparent anomaly, that many of the lowest savages
should have as much brains as average Europeans. The idea is suggested
of a surplusage of power; of an instrument beyond the needs of its
possessor.

_Comparison of the Brains of Man and of Anthropoid Apes._--In order to
discover if there is any foundation for this notion, let us compare the
brain of man with that of animals. The adult male Orang-utan is quite as
bulky as a small sized man, while the Gorilla is considerably above the
average size of man, as estimated by bulk and weight; yet the former has
a brain of only 28 cubic inches, the latter, one of 30, or, in the
largest specimen yet known, of 341/2 cubic inches. We have seen that the
average cranial capacity of the lowest savages is probably not less than
_five-sixths_ of that of the highest civilized races, while the brain of
the anthropoid apes scarcely amounts to _one-third_ of that of man, in
both cases taking the average; or the proportions may be more clearly
represented by the following figures--anthropoid apes, 10; savages, 26;
civilized man, 32. But do these figures at all approximately represent
the relative intellect of the three groups? Is the savage really no
farther removed from the philosopher, and so much removed from the ape,
as these figures would indicate? In considering this question, we must
not forget that the heads of savages vary in size, almost as much as
those of civilized Europeans. Thus, while the largest Teutonic skull in
Dr. Davis' collection is 112.4 cubic inches, there is an Araucanian of
115.5, an Esquimaux of 113.1, a Marquesan of 11O.6, a Negro of 105.8,
and even an Australian of 104.5 cubic inches. We may, therefore, fairly
compare the savage with the highest European on the one side, and with
the Orang, Chimpanzee, or Gorilla, on the other, and