3 Dynamic Theory. 



with thumbs. He could also write an excellent hand in the same way. 



In the structure of the feet and hands there is a rapid divergence 

 from the gorilla as we go down the scale of the lower apes. Thus the 

 carpus of the orang has nine bones instead of eight as in man and the 

 gorilla. Its foot is wanting an important flexor tendon to its great toe ; 

 and the bones of the foot generally depart greatly from the shape and 

 proportions of the same parts in the gorilla, the difference on the 

 whole being considerably greater than that between the gorilla and man. 



All the other apes and monkeys show variations of one sort or an- 

 other in hand and foot, but in no case does the foot lose its typical 

 characteristics; namely, the short flexor, short extensor and "peronceus 

 longus " muscles and the peculiarly pedal arrangement of the tarsal 

 bones. Thus it appears that the ape is wanting in what was supposed 

 to be sufficiently characteristic of him to give name to his order. He 

 is not Quadrumanous but Bimanous and Bipedal. 



Now this close and minute resemblance between man and the anthro- 

 poid apes is something more than accidental. Unlike causes might 

 produce like effects where the effects are single or' simple, but where the 

 effects to be compared are complicated, and the comparison tallies in a 

 thousand minute points, we cannot avoid the conclusion that they are 

 produced by the same general causes. In fact, the resemblance is of 

 the same nature as that which obtains between men and compels us to 

 admit their common brotherhood. 



By the same process as that pursued above, comparisons could be in- 

 stituted between the apes and other and lower orders of Mammalia, by 

 which it could be shown that the resemblances between them are more 

 remarkable than the differences. And this sort of comparison could be 

 pursued between the lower mammals and the birds and reptiles, between 

 these again and the fishes, between these and the mollusks, and so on 

 until the comparisons should cover the whole of animated nature and 

 the same conclusion would finally be reached, that all animals must 

 have come into being by the operation of the same causes. 



The theory of evolution is an attempt to show that these causes, what- 

 ever they are, have acted and continue to act persistently and every- 

 where ; and that their effect is to develop forms more complicated from 

 those less complicated, these from the still less complicated, and finally 

 those but little complicated from the simple. According to this theory, 

 the close resemblances between the different animals argues a common 

 ancestry and a blood relationship, and the closer the resemblance the 

 nearer the relationship. The nearer the relationship, the more recently, 

 in point of time, has the divergence in stock and blood taken place. We 

 sometimes say of two men "they are enough alike to be brothers. " If 

 they are brothers they diverged from each other at the beginning of the 



