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Show 450 DARWINISM CHAP. the minute structure of the tissues, the nature of the blo~d, the nerves, and the brain. Such diseasef'i as hydroph?bm, variola, the glanders, cholera, herpes, etc:, can be transm~ttcd from animals to man or the reverse ; wlule monkeys are hablc to many of the same non- conta(Yiou diseases as we are. Renaaer who carefully observed the common monkey (Ccbus Aza~~) in Paraguay, found it liable ~o catarrh, w~th the usual symptoms terminating sometimes m consumptiOn. These monkeys 'also suffered from apoplexy, i.n~ammation of the bowels, and cataract in the eye. McdiCm~s produced the same effect upon them as upon us. M~~y lnnds of monkeys have a strong taste for tea, coffee, sp1nts, and even tobacc?. These facts show the similarity of the nerves of ta,stc m monkeys and in ourselves, and that their whole. nervous system is affected in a similar way. Even the paras1tes, both external and internal, that affect man are not altogether peculi;:tr to him, but belong to th.c same families ?r genera as those which infest animals, and m one case, scabies, even the same species.l These curious facts seem quite inconsisten t with the idea that man's bodily structure and nature arc altoaethcr distinct from those of animals, and have had a diffe~ent ori(Yin · while the facts arc just what we should expect if he bha; been produced by descent with modification from some common ancestor. The Animals most nearly Allied to Man. By universal consent we see in the ~onkey tribe .a caricature of humanity. Their faces, the1r hands, th01r actions and expressions present ludicrous res~mb~ances. to m:r own. But there is one group of this great tnbe m wh1ch tim resemblance is greatest, and they have hence been called the anthropoid or m<1n-like apes. These a~c few in n.umhcr, :t~1 d inhabit only the equatorial regions of Afnca and Asta, counttws where the climate is most uniform, the forests densest, and the supply of fruit abundant throughout the Y.ca~·· Thrse animals are now comparatively well known, consistmg of the orana-utan of Borneo and Sumatra, the chimpanzee and the gorilla of West Africa, and th~ group ?f gib??ns or long-armc(l apes, consisting of many species and mhab1tmg South-Eastern 1 The Descent of Man, pp. 7, 8. XV DARWINISM APPLIED TO MAN 451 Asia :tn<l the larger Malay Islands. These last arc far less like mnr.t tha~ the other three, one or other of which has at val'lons times been claimed to be the most man-like of the apes ~nd our nearest relations in the animal kingdom. The que. hon ~f the degree of resemblance of these animals to ourselves 1s one of great interest leadina as it does to some · , • ' 01 , Important conclusiOns as to our oriain and geolo(Yical antiquity a.ml we will therefore briefly conshlcr it. b ' . If we compare the skeletons of the orang or chimpanzee wtth that of man, we find them to be a kind of distorted copy, ev~ry bone corrc~po~ding (with. very few exceptions), but alt~red ~omewhat m size, proportiOns, and position. So great 1s th1s resemblance that it led Professor Owen to remark : '.'I c~n~~t shut my eyes to the significance of that al~-.pervadmg s1m1htude o~ structure-every tooth, every bone, s~nctly homologous-whtch makes the determination of the d1fference between Homo and Pithecus the anatomist's difficulty.'' The actual differences in the skeletons of those apes and that of man-tha~ is, differences dependent on the presence or absence of certam bones, ·and not on their form or position -have been enumerated by Mr. Mivart as follows :-(1) In the br.east-bone consis~ing of but two bones, man agrees with the _gt?bons; the chmtpanz.ee an~ gorilla having this part cons1stmg of seven bones m a smgle series, while in the orang they are arranged in a double series of ten bones. (2) !he normal .numb~r of the ribs in the orang and some gibbons IS twelve pa17s, as m ~an, while in the chimpanzee and gorilla there a~e thtrtee~ pa1rs. (3) The orang and the gibbons also agree w1th man m having five lumbar vertobrre while in the gorilla and the chimpanzee there are but four, ;nd sometimes ?nly t~ree.. ( 4) The gorilla and chimpanzee agree with man m ha:mg mght small bones in the wrist, while the orang and the g1bbons, as well as all other monkeys, have nine.! :rhe differences in the form, size, and attachments of the vanous bones, muscles, and other organs of those apes and . 1 .M:m and Apes . . By St. George Mivart, F.R.S., 1873. It is an mterestmg fact {for wluch I am indebted to Mr. E. B. Poulton) that the human embryo possesses the extra rib and wrist-bone referred to above in .(2) and ( 4) as occurring in some of the apes. |