BIOLOGICAL BEGINNINGS 21 



in the brain of man has its analogy in that of the orang; but he adds that 

 at no period of development do their brains perfectly agree; nor could 

 perfect agreement be expected, for otherwise their mental powers would 

 have been the same. 



It may, however, be worth while to specify a few points, not directly 

 or obviously connected with structure, by which this correspondence or 

 relationship is well shewn. 



A-Ian is liable to receive from the lower animals, and to communicate to 

 them, certain diseases, as hydrophobia, variola, the glanders, syphilis, 

 cholera, herpes, &c.; and this fact proves the close similarity of their tissues 

 and blood, both in minute structure and composition, far more plainly 

 than does their comparison under the best microscope, or by the aid of 

 the best chemical analysis. A4onkeys are liable to many of the same non- 

 contagious diseases as we are; thus Rengger, who carefully observed for 

 a long time the Cebus Azarae in its native land, found it liable to catarrh, 

 with the usual symptoms, and which, when often recurrent, led to con- 

 sumption. These monkeys suffered also from apoplexy, inflammation of 

 the bowels, and cataract in the eye. The younger ones when shedding 

 their milk-teeth often died from fever. Medicines produced the same effect 

 on them as on us. Many kinds of monkeys have a strong taste for tea, coffee, 

 and spirituous liquors: they will also, as I have myself seen, smoke tobacco 

 with pleasure, Brehm asserts that the natives of north-eastern Africa catch 

 the wild baboons by exposing vessels with strong beer, by which they are 

 made drunk. He has seen some of these animals, which he kept in con- 

 finement, in this state; and he gives a laughable account of their behaviour 

 and strange grimaces. On the following morning they were very cross 

 and dismal; they held their aching heads with both hands, and wore a most 

 pitiable expression: when beer or wine was offered them, they turned away 

 with disgust, but relished the juice of lemons. An American monkey, an 

 Ateles, after getting drunk on brandy, would never touch it again, and 

 thus was wiser than many men. These trifling facts prove how similar the 

 nerves of taste must be in monkeys and man, and how similarly their whole 

 nervous system is affected. 



Man is infested with internal parasites, sometimes causing fatal effects; 

 and is plagued by external parasites, all of which belong to the same genera 

 or families as those infesting other mammals, and in the case of scabies to 

 the same species. Man is subject, like other mammals, birds, and even in- 

 sects, to that mysterious law, which causes certain normal processes, such 

 as gestation, as well as the maturation and duration of various diseases, to 

 follow lunar periods. His wounds are repaired by the same process of 

 healing; and the stumps left after the amputation of his limbs, especially 

 during an early embryonic period, occasionally possess some power of 

 regeneration, as in the lowest animals. 



The whole process of that most important function, the reproduction of 



