in 



dutin 



\ IT. 



h then animal* from monkey* in general. Our own language 

 u eren more copious Uuui others in term* for dUtmguishing the 

 different characters of thin class of animal* ; thus we say that an Ape 

 it a monkey without a tail, and Baboon a monkey with a short Uil, 

 rimihiu the term Muntty more particularly for those species which 

 hare very long tails; and though our early writers use these tl.r. . 

 words indiscriminately as synonymec, aii.l apply them indinVrcntly to 

 the same animal, yet the signification* here given have generally pre- 

 vailed since the time of Ray, and are uow almost exclusively adopted. 

 It must be confessed however that these significations are extremely 

 Ta*ue, and certainly <io nut express the zoological relations which 

 ubairt between the different sections of this group of animals. 



According to its modern zoological definition, tin- genii* .1 

 Pitktciu, comprises thoae qu&drumanous mammals which have tin- 

 teeth of the same number and form ax in man, and which possess 

 r tails nor cheek pouches. ThU definition, whilst, on tli ...... c 



hand, it excludes certain tailless baboons and monkeys, comprehends, 

 on the other, the three sub-genera of Orangs, CUmpaimw, un.l Cib- 

 bona. Nor are these the only characters which the Apes share in 



The Chimpanzee. 



common. They, of all other animals, approach most nearly to the 

 human species in organisation, although their points of inferiority ore 

 more numerous than at first night appear. The arms are BO i 

 almost to touch the ground wh.-n tin; animal* stand erect on their 

 hind U-g" : but the legs themselves are scarcely one-third of tin' nt in- 

 height. The legs moreover are not in the same !i.- witli tin 

 the knees are tnrne<l outwards, and the feet are articulated at the 

 ankle in such a manner that their soles turn inwards so as to face 

 or be opposed to one another. By these means the Apes are enabled 

 to embrace or grasp the trunks and branches of trues with much 

 greater force than if their members were constructed like our own. 

 They thus become exsuntially sylvan or arboreal animals, and never 

 voluntarily abandon the forenta, where they find at once the most 

 congenial food and the most perfect security. 



i whole organisation peculiarly adapts the AI>C t<> them 1 



Decides the conformation of tl xtrcmitic* jn-t noticed, tin- lingers 



and toes are long, flexible, nn<l deeply separated from one another, 

 and the thumb, or interior finger, in completely opposeable to the other 

 four, as well on the posterior as on the anterior extremities : thus, 

 their feet and hand* are equally formed for prehension. They are 

 not Quadrupeds, as Buflbn has justly observed, but Qimdrumana : not 

 four-footed but essentially four-handed animals. One part of their 

 organisation renders them intermediate between thn hats and ordinary 

 mammals; another makes them the connecting link between man and 



APE. m 



the inferior animals. The great length of the lingers and anterior 

 :ththo^.|.vha,.l. an pi.ei~.ly what we observa 



among winged mammals, only that the fingers are not connected by 

 a Hying membrane ; ami their economy and habitat equally corre- 

 spond with this intermediate stnictun-. Th.-\ an. neither confined 

 to the surface of tho earth like the generality "of mammal*, nor ,|.. 

 they possess the power of elevating themselves into the nir, lik<- the 

 bats; but they choose a middle habitat, the forests, where they 

 habitually reside, and where tin x w ith an ease and 



velocity which can only be compared to actual flight. On th. 

 hand, when compiled by circumstances to traverse any part of the 

 earth's surface, their pace, | , aking. in neither tliat of a 



biped nor of a quadruped; th.-y d.. n,,t walk upright like a man, nor 

 yet do they walk upon all-four* like the lower animal*. The great 

 length of their arms prevents them from adopting lither of them 

 modes of progression in its simple form, but they avail themselves of 

 this very circumstance in another manner. Their long arm 

 them instead of crutches, and their pace is precisely that of a lame 

 man who walks with the assistance of these instruments. From tl- 



Orang-Oulnn. 



oblique articulation of the posterior extr> \ i-c.-t only on the 



outer edge of the foot, but the wavering equilibrium thus occasional 

 is secured by the long fore-arms, which can easily touch the gmun<l 

 in all <! ml. when an advance U to be made, it is a. 



plii-he'l by resting the weight of tho body upon the half-closed 

 and then swinging the hinder extremities forward, precisely like a 

 man on crutches. In their native forests the extreme length of their 

 fore-arms is turned to the greatest advantage : here it acts upon the 

 principle of the rope-dancer's balancing-pole, niul completely secures 

 their equilibrium even with the most precarioun footing. Tip 

 that travellers have seen the Apes polled at the very extremity of the 

 slcii.lcr trunks of the bamboo, waving their long arms from uide to 

 .-id'- with tho most graceful and easy mot [i 



Another circumstance in the structure of the Apes, in which Mi. y 

 .lit!. -i from mo-t ,,th. r <}iiadruiuana, has considerable influence ujxm 

 their habit*; this in the entire want of a tail. Though the presence 

 of thin organ does not always indicate a corrc-poncling function, and 

 i its absence is not confined to this gr >up of quadrumanous 

 animal . yet a long t.iil woui. uross the nearly erect 



motion of the real Apes ; wh t her respects superseded 



by the length of the fare-arm-*, which .--upply it place in adjusting 

 the proper balance of the body, the only function which the tail per- 

 form.) iu the common monkeys. But another character of still : i 



