Chap. I. HOMOLOGICAL STRUCTURE. 13 



are repaired by the same process of healing ; and the 

 stumps left after the amputation of his limbs occa- 

 sionally possess, especially during an early embryonic 

 period, some power of regeneration, as in the lowest 

 animals. 6 



The whole process of that most important function, 

 the reproduction of the species, is strikingly the same 

 in all mammals, from the first act of courtship by the 

 male 7 to the birth and nurturing of the young. Mon- 

 keys are born in almost as helpless a condition as our 

 own infants ; and in certain genera the young differ 

 fully as much in appearance from the adults, as do our 

 children from their full-grown parents. 8 It has been 

 urged by some writers as an important distinction, that 

 with man the young arrive at maturity at a much later 

 age than with any other animal : but if we look to the 

 races of mankind which inhabit tropical countries the 

 difference is not great, for the orang is believed not to 

 be adult till the age of from ten to fifteen years. 9 Man 



man's North American Journal of Science,' vol. xvii. p. 305, lias seen 

 a dog suffering from tertian ague. 



6 I have given the evidence on this head in my ' Variation of 

 Animals and Plants under Domestication,' vol. ii. p. 15. 



" " Mares e diversis generibus Quadrumanorum sine dubio dignoseunt 

 " feminas hum anas a maribus. Primum, credo, odoratu, postea aspectu. 

 " Mr. Youatt, qui diu in Hortis Zoologicis (Bestiariis) medicus animal- 

 " ium erat, vir in rebus observandis cautus et sagax, hoc mibi certissime 

 " probavit, et curatores ejusdem loci et alii e ministris confirmaverunt. 

 ' ' Sir Andrew Smith et Brelim notabant idem in Cynocephalo. Illus- 

 " trissimus Cuvier etiam narrat multa de hac re qua ut opinor nihil 

 " turpius potest indicari inter omnia liominibus et Quadrumanis com- 

 *' munia. Narrat enim Cynocephalum quendam in furorem incidere 

 " aspectu feminarum aliquarum, sed nequaquam accendi tanto furore 

 " ab omnibus. Semper eligebat juniores, et dignoscebat in turba, et 

 " advocabat voce gestuque." 



s This remark is made with respect to Cynocephalus and the an- 

 thropomorphous apes by Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire and F. Cuvier, ' Hist. 

 Nat. des Mammiteres,' torn. i. 1824. 



9 Huxley, ■ Man's Place in Nature,' 1863, p. 34. 



