BIOLOGICAL BEGINNINGS 39 



elsewhere and in some of the Cebine apes and in the Chrysothrix, the 

 cranium is as smooth and rounded as that of Man himself. 



What is true of these leading characteristics of the skull, holds good, 

 as may be imagined, of all minor features; so that for every constant differ- 

 ence between the Gorilla's skull and the Man's, a similar constant differ- 

 ence of the same order (that is to say, consisting in excess or defect of the 

 same quality) may be found between the Gorilla's skull and that of some 

 other ape. So that, for the skull, no less than for the skeleton in general, 

 the proposition holds good, that the differences between Man and the 

 Gorilla are of smaller value than those between the Gorilla and some other 

 Apes. 



Whatever part of the animal fabric — whatever series of muscles, what- 

 ever viscera might be selected for comparison — the result would be the 

 same — the lower Apes and the Gorilla would differ more than the Gorilla 

 and the Man. I cannot attempt in this place to follow out all these com- 

 parisons in detail, and indeed it is unnecessary I should do so. But certain 

 real, or supposed, structural distinctions between man and the apes remain, 

 upon which so much stress has been laid, that they require careful con- 

 sideration, in order that the true value may be assigned to those which are 

 real, and the emptiness of those which are fictitious may be exposed. I 

 refer to the characters of the hand, the foot, and the brain. 



Alan has been defined as the only animal possessed of two hands terminat- 

 ing his fore limbs, and of two feet ending his hind limbs, while it has been 

 said that all the apes possess four hands; and he has been affirmed to differ 

 fundamentally from all the apes in the characters of his brain, which alone, 

 it has been strangely asserted and reasserted, exhibits the structures known 

 to anatomists as the posterior lobe, the posterior cornu of the lateral 

 ventricle and the hippocampus minor. 



That the former proposition should have gained general acceptance is 

 not surprising — indeed, at first sight, appearances are much in its favour: 

 but, as for the second, one can only admire the surpassing courage of its 

 enunciator, seeing that it is an innovation which is not only opposed to 

 generally and justly accepted doctrines, but which is directly negatived 

 by the testimony of all original inquirers, who have specially investigated 

 the matter: and that it neither has been, nor can be, supported by a single 

 anatomical preparation. It would, in fact, be unworthy of serious refutation, 

 except for the general and natural belief that deliberate and reiterated asser- 

 tions must have some foundation. 



Thus, whatever system of organs be studied, the comparison of their 

 modifications in the ape series leads to one and the same result — that the 

 structural differences which separate Man from the Gorilla and the Chim- 

 panzee are not so great as those which separate the Gorilla from the lower 

 apes. 



