]62 Thomas Henry Huxley 



life, are coated by callosities on which the animal 

 habituall}- rests, and which are coarse, corn-like patches 

 of skin wlioll}' absent in the gorilla, in the chimpanzee, 

 in the orang, and in man. 



In the characters of the hands, the feet, and the brain, 

 certain real or supposed structural distinctions between 

 man and the apes had been relied upon. 



" Man has been defined as the only animal possessed of two 

 hands terminating his fore-limbs, and of two feet terminating 

 his hind-limbs, while it has been said that all the apes possess 

 four hands; and he has been affirmed to differ fundamentally 

 from all the apes in the characters of his brain, which alone, it 

 has been strangely asserted and reasserted, exhibits the struct- 

 ures known to anatomists as the posterior lobe, the posterior 

 cornu of the lateral ventricle, and the hippocampus minor. 



"That the former proposition should have gained general 

 acceptance is not surprising — indeed, at first sight, appear- 

 ances are much in its favour ; but, as for the second, one can 

 only admire the surpassing courage of its enunciator, seeing 

 that it is an innovation which is not only opposed to generally 

 and justly accepted doctrines, but which is directly negatived 

 by the testimony of all original enquirers who have specially 

 investigated the matter ; and that it has neither been, nor can 

 be, supported by a single anatomical preparation. It would, 

 in fact, be unworthy of serious refutation except for the general 

 and natural belief that deliberate and reiterated assertions must 

 have some foundation." 



The last remarks referred, of course, to the statements 

 of Owen, w^hich had made a great impression at the 

 time and the result of which still lingers in some of the 

 worse-informed treatises attacking evolution. Huxley 

 gave a lucid account of the general structure and 

 arrangement of the brain in the vertebrate series, ex- 

 plaining the well-known fact that from fish up to man 

 the general ground-plan of the brain is identical, but 

 that there is a progressive increase in the complexity 



