MAN'S COUSINS THE APES 41 



the Gorilla, the Chimpanzee and the Orang-utan. Of 

 these the Chimpanzee has most in common with the 

 human race. But it may satisfy the qualms of many 

 to know that between the Ape and the Man there is a 

 great gulf fixed. The brain of the largest Ape is less than 

 half the size of that even of the lowest of mankind. Man 

 is a reasoning, and for the most part a reasonable, 

 creature ; he is a tool-making animal. This is more 

 than can be said of any of the apes, even the most 

 intelligent. Their teeth and immensely powerful arms 

 must serve their every need. No ape ever fashioned for 

 himself either a knife, a vessel to carry water, or any 

 means of transport ; and herein we have a measure of his 

 brain capacity. The huge jaws and great canine teeth 

 are no less conspicuous " marks of the beast." 



These, however, man himself has but recently lost, as 

 was proved by the sensational discovery of the skull of an 

 ape-like man at Piltdown, in Sussex, during 191 2. Herein 

 the jaw was essentially that of an ape, while the base of 

 the skull was as markedly human. The cheek teeth, or 

 molars, were of the human type ; but the canine was 

 ape-like, though much inferior in point of size. That the 

 men of this remote age — which was possibly that of 

 Pliocene times and certainly not later than early 

 Pleistocene — had begun to use rudely-fashioned tools, is 

 proved by the roughly-chipped flints found with the 

 remains. With the invention of tools the decline in the 

 size of his " eye " teeth began. 



In all the large apes these " eye " teeth are of great 

 size. Their purpose, it would seem, is primarily to serve 

 as weapons in conflicts between rivals. Such conflicts 

 are apparently unintentionally, and unavoidably, pro- 

 voked by the loud cries uttered by the males in their 



