April 2, 1888.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



121 



^ AN 



ILLUSTRATED ^MAGAZINE 

 iSC}ENC£,UTEMTURE,& ARfc 



LONDON: APltlL 2, 1888. 



THE KINSHIP OF MEN AND APES, ETC. 



Bv Professor E. 8. Morse.* 



NLY the briefest reference can here be made 

 to a few of the numerous contributions 

 on the subject of man's relation to the 

 animals lelow him. The rapidly-accumu- 

 lating proofs of the dose relation existing 

 between mnn and the quadrumaiia, make 

 interesting every fact, however trivial, in 

 reg.ard to the structure and habits of the higher apes. 



Dr. Arthur E. Brownf has made some interesting experi- 

 ments with the monkeys at the Zoological Gardens in 

 Philadelphia. He found that tiie monkeys showed great 

 fear, as well as curiosit)", when a snake was placed in their 

 cage, though they were not affected by other animals, such 

 as an alligator and turtle. On the other hand, mammals 

 belonging to other oiders showed no fear or curiosity at a 

 snake. These experiments, repeated in various ways, lead 

 liim only to one logical conclusion, " that the fear of the 

 serpent became instinctive in some far-distant progenitor of 

 man, by reason of his long exposure to danger and de.ath in 

 a horrible form, from the bite, and that it has been handed 

 down through the diverging lines of descent which find 

 their expression to-day in Homo and Pithecus" [/.e. Man 

 and Ape]. 



The same author.^ in an exceedingly interesting descrip- 

 tion of the higher apes, says: "Mr. A. li. Wallace once 

 called attention to the similarity in colour existing between 

 the orang and chimpauzje and the human natives of their 

 respective countries. It would, indeed, seem as if but half 

 the truth liad been told, and that the comparison might be 

 carried also into the region of mind : the quick, vivacious 

 chimpanz3e partaking of the mercurial disposition of negro 

 races, v.'hile the apathetic, slow orang would pass for a 

 disciple of the sullen fatalism of the Malay." [The resem- 

 blance between the gorilla and the negro is even more 

 striking in some respects than that between the latter and 

 the chimpanzee. I dwelt on this in an article on "The 

 Gorilla and other Apes," in my " Pleasant Ways in Science," 

 pp. 302, 303.— E. P.] 



Dr. Brown§ has also given a description of the grief 

 manifested by a chimj)anzee on the death of its mate. His 

 grief was shown by tearing his hair or snatching at the 

 short hair on his head. The yell of rage was followed by a 

 cry the keeper had never heard before, a .sound which might 

 be repi-esented by liali-alt-ah-alt-ali uttered somewhat under 

 the breath, and with a plaintive sound like a moan. 



* From an article on American Zoologists and Evolution, in the 

 "Popular Science Monthly." (New York.) 

 t "American Naturalist," vol. xii., p. 225. 

 X Ibid., vol. xvii., p. ll'.t. 

 § Ibid., vol. xiii.p. 173. 



Mr. W. F. Hornaday • read at the Saratoga meeting of 

 this Association an exceedingly interesting paper on the 

 " Habits of the Orang," as observed by him in his native 

 forests. He says, " Each individual of the Borneo orangs 

 differs from his fellows, and has as many facial peculiarities 

 belonging to himself alone, as can be found in the indi- 

 viduals of any unmixed race of human beings." After 

 recounting the many traits of the orang, heretofore reg.ai-ded 

 as peculiar to man, he says: "Let any one, who is pi'C- 

 judiced against Darwinian views, go tothefoie.sts of Borneo. 

 Let him there watch from day to day this strangely human 

 form in all its various pliases of existence. Let; him sec it 

 climb, walk, build its nest, eat and drink and fight like 

 human ' roughs.' Let him see the female suckle her young 

 and carry it astride her hip precisely as do the coolie 

 women of Hindoostan. Let him witness their human-like 

 emotions of affection, satisfaction, pain, and childish rage — 

 let him see all this, and then ho may feel how much more 

 potent has been the lesson than all he has rerd in pages of 

 abstract ratiocination. 



Profeisor W. S. Barnard several years ago, in a study 

 of the myology [or muscle-work] of man and apes, showed 

 tjurt the scansorius muscle which Trail studied in the 

 higher apes and which he supposed had no homologue in 

 man, was really homologous with the fjluUns minimus in 

 man. Dr. Henry C. Chapman.t in a study of the struc- 

 ture of the orangoutang, has confirmed the truth of 

 Barnard's discovery. Dr. Chapman is led to infer that the 

 ancestral form of man was intermediate in character, as 

 compared with living anthropoids or lower monkeys, agree- 

 ing with them in some respects and differing from them in 

 others. [This view is discussed in an article on " Our Ape 

 Cousins," in a recent volume of Knowledge. — R. P.] 



The osteological aflinities which man has with the 

 Lemuridce, as insisted upon by Mivart, are also recognised by 

 ( 'ope.i: In a general paper on the " Origin of Man and 

 other Vertebrates," he says : "' An especial ])oint of in- 

 terest in the phylogeny [or tribe origin — but oh ! these 

 wordmongers !] of man has been brought to light in our 

 North American beds. There are some things in the struc- 

 ture of man and his nearest relatives, the chinrpanzee, 

 orang, kc, that leads us to suspect that they had rather 

 come from some extinct type of lemurs." 



It would .seem as if we must look farther back than the 

 higher apes for the converging lines of a man's relations 

 with them. The earliest remains of man or the apes found 

 fossil, presenting as they do marked types with little 

 tendency to approach one another, would in themselves 

 suggest an earlier origin for both stocks. [And that earlier 

 origin must share descent with contemporary races from an 

 earlier origin still ; and that, tte.— II. P.] 



In a paper by Profes.sor Cope § on " Lem urine Reversion 

 in Human Dentition," he says, in concluding his article : 

 " It may be stated that the tritubercular superior molars of 

 man constitute a reversion to the dentition of the Lemuridtv 

 of the Eocene period of the family AnapfoniorpMclce, and 

 second, that this rever.-ion is principally seen among 

 Esquimaux and the Slavic, French, and American branches 

 of the European race." 



In another paper by the same author !| on the " Develop- 

 mental Significance of Human Physiognomy," he compares 

 the proportions of the body and the facial peculiarities of man 

 with the higher apes and human infants, and shows that 



* "American Naturalist," vol. xiii., p. 712. 



t "Proceedings of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences," 

 1880, p. 163. 

 t "Popular Science Monthly," vol. xxvii., p, GOO. 

 § " American Naturalist," vol. xx., p. 9tl. 

 ]| Ibid., vol. xvii., p. 618. 



