45d DARWINISM CHAP. 



the minute structure of the tissues, the nature of the blood, 

 the nerves, and the hrain. Such diseases as hydrophobia, 

 variola, the glanders, cholera, herpes, etc., can be transmitted 

 from animals to man or the reverse ; while monkeys are liable 

 to many of the same non-contagious diseases as we are. 

 Rengger, who carefully observed the common monkey (Cebus 

 Azarie) in Paraguay, found it liable to catarrh, with the usual 

 symptoms, terminating sometimes in consumption. These 

 monkeys also suffered from apoplexy, inflammation of the 

 bowels, and cataract in the eye. Medicines produced the 

 same effect upon them as upon us. Many kinds of monkeys 

 have a strong taste for tea, coffee, spirits, and even tobacco. 

 These facts show the similarity of the nerves of taste in 

 monkeys and in ourselves, and that their whole nervous 

 system is affected in a similar way. Even the parasites, both 

 external and internal, that affect man are not altogether 

 peculiar to him, but belong to the same families or genera as 

 those which infest animals, and in one case, scabies, even the 

 same species. ■'• These curious facts seem quite inconsistent 

 with the idea that man's bodily structure and nature are 

 altogether distinct from those of animals, and have had a 

 different origin ; while the facts are just what we should 

 expect if he has been produced by descent vnih modification 

 from some common ancestor. 



The Animals most nearly Allied to Man. 



By universal consent we see in the monkey tribe a 

 caricature of humanity. Their faces, their hands, their 

 actions and expressions present ludicrous resemblances to our 

 own. But there is one group of this great tribe in which this 

 resemblance is greatest, and they have hence been called the 

 anthropoid or man -like apes. These are few in number, and 

 inhabit only the equatorial regions of Africa and Asia, countries 

 where the climate is most uniform, the forests densest, and 

 the supply of fruit abundant throughout the year. These 

 animals are now comparatively well known, consisting of the 

 orang-utan of Borneo and Sumatra, the chimpanzee and the 

 gorilla of West Africa, and the group of gibbons or long-armed 

 apes, consisting of many species and inhabiting South-Eastern 

 ^ The Descent of Man, pp. 7, 8. 



