HAND AND FOOT OF ATELES 



Palmar aspect of left hand of Black Spider Monkey shown in right-hand cut, with 

 aborted thumb. The left-hand cut shows the right foot of the same individual. This 

 graphically resembles a human hand. The great toe, which is well developed, has the 

 appearance of a finger, and the palmar surface extends backwards more than might 

 be anticipated. The nails resemble greatly those of the human hand. Photograph 

 natural size. (Fig. 14). 



missing in man's anatoniy, and present 

 in the ape's; but this in no way contra- 

 dicts the aforesaid statement. So, too, 

 for the organs themselves as a whole — 

 the eye, or the ear, or the tongue of a 

 monkey is just as perfect and complex 

 as are the corresponding organs in man. 

 Elliot, in his great work (three 

 volumes) on "A Review of the Pri- 

 mates," says: "In this review the 

 orangoutang is placed lowest in the scale 

 or farthest from man; and the genus 

 Pongo is considered to possess but one 

 species certainly, and one very doubtful. 

 The author is fully aware that this 

 opinion is by no means shared by some 

 of his colleagues, who would recognize a 

 large number of species ; but after exam- 

 ining all the material of orangs con- 

 tained in all of the large museums of the 

 world, the writer was able to discover no 

 character that would prove the existence 

 of more than one species. The opinions 

 as to the position the orang should 

 occupy in reference to man have varied 

 greatly, yet despite the views of so great 

 an authority as that of his friend, the 

 late Sir Richard Owen, who would place 

 the orang before the gorilla in its 

 relation to man, the author, from the 

 result of his own studies and the evidence 

 produced by others, considers that the 



testimony in its entirety shows that the 

 gorilla, low as he may be in the scale of 

 intelligence, has more of an affinity for 

 man than the orang, while both are far 

 exceeded in man-like qualities by the 

 chimpanzee." (Vol. i, p. xxvii.) 



Passing next to a brief consideration 

 of the mental and physical attributes of 

 apes, monkeys, and their various near 

 congeners, as compared with the corre- 

 sponding ones in man, I may truthfully 

 state that simply tons of books and 

 articles have been published on that 

 subject. Notwithstanding this fact, how 

 very, very few there are, even in the 

 highl}^ intellectual classes, that can 

 intelligently discuss the mental and 

 physical differences that exist between 

 man and the apes and their near kin. 

 As a matter of fact, articulate speech, as 

 possessed by the former, is the main dis- 

 tinctive character between them. Even 

 this distinction is not wholly true, for all 

 apes and all monkeys have a language of 

 their own, which has been largely trans- 

 lated by students of it. As to the 

 emotions, apes possess them as well as 

 man, and, with respect to some of them 

 quite as pronounced. There is no 

 question but that all the senses are as 

 well developed in apes as in m.an, as 

 sight, hearing, smell, and so on. 



185 



