THE HUMAN ANIMAL ECONOMY. 193 



the equator; pursue their commerce, and estabh'sh their 

 factories in Africa, Asia, and America. They can equally 

 live under a burning sky and on an ice-bound soil, and 

 inhabit regions, where the hardiest animals cannot exist. 

 Such changes indeed ought not to be hazarded suddenly 

 and without precaution. The greatest evils that have 

 arisen from change of climate have been occasioned by the 

 presumption of health, that refuses to use the necessary 

 precautions, or by the neglect of ignorance, that knows 

 not v/hat precautions to use. But when changes are gra- 

 dually and prudently effected, habit soon accommodates the 

 constitution to a new situation, and human ingenuity dis- 

 covers the means of guarding against the dangers of every 

 season and of every climate. 



The superiority of man appears more striking, when we 

 contrast his universal extension with the narrow limits to 

 which other animals, even the most anthropo-morphous, 

 are confined. The whole tribe of simile are nearly included 

 within the tropics* 5 and no species has any considerable 

 range even within these boundaries. No species is common 

 to the old and the new world ; none, probably, to Asia and 

 Africa. The orang-utang seems to be only found in the 

 island of Borneo ; and the chimpanse in a district of Africa. 

 The gibbon is peculiar to the East Indies ; and the pro- 

 boscis monkey (simia rostrata) to the Sunda Isles. 



The two most man-like monkeys (S. satyrus and troglo- 

 dytes), inhabiting small districts of warm regions, are a very 

 inconsiderable species in number ; and thus offer a strong 

 contrast to the thousand millions of the human species. 

 They are subject to numerous diseases : lose all their viva- 

 city, strength, and natural character; and perish, after 

 lingering in a miserable way, when removed from their 

 native abodes. An orang-utang brought to Paris, never 

 recovered the exposure to cold in crossing the Pyrenees, and 

 died at the age of fifteen months, with most of the viscera 



* The simia inuus, or Barbary ape, has been transplanted from Africa to 

 the rock of Gibraltar. 



o 



