98 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



general paralysis of the insane," at different periods the actions 

 and behavior of the unfortunate patient become horribly monkey- 

 like. The continuous chattering, the restless clawing movements, 

 and the stage at which the food is seized and crammed into the 

 mouth, and, too, the half-childish, half-monkey-like gibes and 

 smiles which wreath the poor wretch's features as he pours his 

 grandiose ideas into the listeners' ears, create a sickening impres- 

 sion for the observer to think upon. 



A little more old lore concerning apes and man, including a 

 little recapitulation. 



Man compares with the anthropomorphous apes in that the 

 relative weight of a Bushman's brain compared with that, say, of 

 an ordinary gorilla is only as three to two. The furrows and 

 convolutions are really the same in both, and the ape does possess 

 a hippocampus minor. The anthropomorphous apes possess, as 

 do men, five molars ; this of course includes the bicuspids with 

 the molars. Even a prehensile toe is not unknown as a human 

 attribute i. e., the tendency to oppose the big toe to the others. 

 In the gorilla especially the contrast between hand and foot is 

 nearly as distinct as in man. Then again there is the discoidal 

 placenta with, as in the chimpanzee, its two umbilical arteries and 

 one umbilical vein. It is to be noted that the anthropomorphous 

 apes differ far more from the lower apes than do they from man. 

 Lucia and others have said much regarding the fact that the ape 

 as he grows becomes i. ore bestial, and man more human. 



Man's descent from the ape is not direct ; apart from this, the 

 laws of heredity forbid the retrogression of the one species to any 

 great extent, or the exaltment of the other. Man's kinship, how- 

 ever, is not upset by the bestial strength of the teeth of the ape, 

 or by the enormous protuberances on the skulls of this animal. 

 The embryonic and youthful skull of the ape exhibits a plastic 

 and well-formed cranium. Later, in form and character, it strikes 

 out into a divergent and disastrous path. 



Two of the supposed great distinctive marks of division be- 

 tween plants and animals are now disproved. Cellulose was be- 

 lieved to be found alone in vegetable tissue, but now starch, 

 chlorophyll, and cellulose are known to occur in the lower types of 

 the animal kingdom. Animals were supposed to subsist only 

 upon ready-made organic material, while plants were known to be 

 able to convert inorganic into organic material. This partition 

 wall has also been overthrown. 



Stinging and prickly plants may be fairly said to possess and 

 use weapons of defense. The sensitive plant, too, in a timid man- 

 ner resists to the last the attacks of its attackers, and I am con- 

 vinced that it appreciates the current from an electric machine. 

 I have tried to reason with mj-self that my observations have 



