478 THE HIGHER ANTHROPOIDS 



zation in which each is, as it were, an c\oiuti(jnaI terminus. This, however, 

 may not be so strictly the case with man in \\ hom the possibility of further 

 differentiation may have been retained to a certain extent. His future alone 

 must reveal his latent capacity lor development, if such there be. 



The actual interrelationship between man and the great apes seems much 

 more likely to be based upon deri\ation from some common or generalized 

 stock w hich held in it tiie potentialities to specialize along the anthropoid 

 line in one direction, and through certain subhuman stages to man in another. 

 There are unquestionable difi'erenees between the anthropoids and man w hich 

 justify the opinion of extremely remote kinship at best, even in spite of 

 striking similarities. It would seem most probable that neither modern 

 man nor any of his extinct paleolithic predecessors who have appeared in 

 the human drama may trace a direct line of descent to one or other of the 

 living anthropoid apes. These animals have enlisted so much the attention 

 of many noted scientists that the summary of their behavior given here gains 

 considerably by recounting views already expressed by certain distinguished 

 observers. 



The three anthropoid apes are usuallx included in the family Simiidae, 

 represented by three genera which are arranged according as their species 

 appear to be nearest to man. In this discussion the orang-outang is placed 

 lowest in the scale and consequently farthest away from man. The next 

 position is assigned to the chlmi^anzee, while for the gorilla is reserved the 

 closest approximation to the human kind. This classification is based 

 largely u])on morphological consideration of the brain structure which to the 

 mind of the ])resent writer forms a reliable criterioTi iii assigning to each 

 of these anthropoids its respeeti\e place. 



