CHAPTER LX 



ANTHROPOID APES AND MAN 



Excluding entirely from our estimate of man any thought of a spiritual 

 nature or an ethical culture, he is physically an animal, although the 

 mental development of civiHzed man (Fig. 289) so far exceeds that 

 of any other animal as to make apparently a great gap between him and 

 all animals below him. When one compares the higher apes, especially 

 when they have been affected by human teaching, and the uncivilized 

 human races, the gap does not appear so wide, although it still remains. 

 However, the evidence furnished by geology as to the physical character 

 and intellectual development of earlier races of mankind enables us to 

 close the gap entirely. For this reason it is possible to discuss man 

 and the higher apes in the same connection. 



449. Manlike Apes. — The anthropoid apes include four genera repre- 

 sented by living species, these four containing respectively the gibbons, 

 the orang-utans, the chimpanzees, and the gorillas. All these animals 

 are tailless, all assume a semi-erect position, and all have opposable 

 thumbs and great toes. With the exception of the gorilla they are pre- 

 eminently arboreal. As compared with man the anthropoid apes have 

 stronger jaws and teeth; they have a relatively low cranial capacity; the 

 structure of the mouth is not such as to admit of articulate speech; the 

 arms are long and, together with the scapulas, or shoulder blades, are 

 developed in accordance with their use as organs of locomotion in trees ; 

 the feet as well as the hands are grasping appendages; and they cannot 

 assume a fully erect posture. 



When the different types are examined in detail they fall into a 

 graded series, the gibbons being most strictly arboreal, the gorilla least 

 so. It would appear that there has been a gradual tendency to change 

 from an arboreal life to life on the ground. 



A noteworthy characteristic of these apes is the specialization of the 

 two pairs of limbs for entirely different modes of locomotion. The 

 arms, adapted for grasping and for swinging from limb to limb, serve 

 as locomotor organs in the trees, while the legs, though still showing 

 some adjustment to tree life, as in the opposable character of the great 

 toe, are more fitted for locomotion on the ground. 



450. Erect Position. — In an animal going upon all fours the vertebral 

 column forms an arch and the greatest degree of flexibility is at the base 

 of the neck and at the base of the tail. With the assumption of the 



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