256 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



opment of our own species a fancied wall of demarkation between 

 man and beast. Had they been really actuated by a scientific spirit, 

 they would have felt it their bounden duty to ascertain whether all 

 the lower animals were, in contrast to man, able to use their limbs soon 

 after their birth. Had they done so, they might have met with evi- 

 dence similar to what is thus given by an actual observer* in describ- 

 ing an infant orang-outang which had come into his possession : " The 

 Mias, like a very young baby, lying on its back quite helpless, rolling 

 lazily from side to side, stretching out his hands into the air, wishing 

 to grasp something, but hardly able to guide its fingers to any definite 

 object, and when dissatisfied opening wide its almost toothless mouth, 

 and expressing its wants by an almost infantile scream. . . . When I 

 had had it for about a month it began to exhibit some signs of learn- 

 ing to run alone. When laid upon the floor it would push itself along 

 by its legs, or roll over, and thus make an unwieldy progression. 

 When lying in the box it would lift itself up to the edge into almost 

 an erect position, and once or twice succeeded in tumbling over." 



Thus we see that, the nearer brutes approach to man in their struc- 

 ture, the more gradual is their development. The process which in 

 the colt and the lamb is contracted so as to escape observation is here 

 shown at very considerable length. That the child, especially in the 

 higher races of mankind, makes a still more gradual progress, is plainly 

 a mere question of degree. 



The young ape which Mr. Wallace observed was, beyond all rea- 

 sonable dispute, acquiring the use of its limbs precisely in the same 

 manner as a human child. If the latter learns, by slow and laborious 

 degrees, what muscles he must exert in order to effect any desired 

 movement, so does the young ape. If the child can not judge of the 

 position and distance of objects, till it has by considerable practice 

 learned to refer its sensations to appropriate " ideas," the same must 

 be said of the young Mias. But, if the young apes, and, indeed, all 

 other young animals, inherit from their forefathers a latent knowl- 

 edge of the use of their organs, which is called into activity as soon as 

 their muscular and nervous systems are sufficiently developed, the same 

 holds good of the human infant. 



Of course, it would be unfair to demand of such men as Professor 

 Whewell that, before theorizing and dogmatizing, they should go forth 

 to the forests of Borneo in search of facts. As for Davy, his splendid 

 achievements in chemistry may cover his failure in biology. But 

 surely every man in Europe, though he may never have met with 

 infant apes, must have seen how kittens, when beginning to walk, 

 totter, stagger, and roll over, just like young children ; how they pat 

 at, and endeavor to touch, objects beyond their reach ; and how, even 

 after the forelegs have gained a considerable degree of firmness and 

 obey volition, the hinder extremities remain feeble, and are often for 

 * A. R. Wallace, "Malay Archipelago," p. 45. 



