APES AND MONKEYS. 317 



tively to the necessity of placing the two types together. Nor 

 is the distinction between two-handed and four-handed tenable, for 

 although as regards the structure of hands and feet man and 

 monkeys are certainly different, the difference does not imply any 

 opposition; and the monkeys are just as much two-handed as we 

 are. If we keep to the basis of classification adhered to without 

 exception elsewhere, we are forced to place both in one order. I 

 have given to it the name Hochtiere. 



But though the characteristics which belong to all the higher 

 animals as members of one order correspond thus accurately, a 

 closer comparison reveals differences between man and apes which 

 absolutely forbid a fusion of the two groups such as has been at- 

 tempted in modern times. The symmetry of form, the comparative 

 shortness of the arms, the breadth and mobility of the hands, the 

 length and strength of the legs, as well as the flatness of the feet, 

 the naked skin, and the less-developed canine teeth are external 

 marks of man which must not be under-estimated, for they are 

 important enough to justify putting him and the apes in different 

 families, perhaps even different sub-orders. If, in addition, we take 

 man's endowments into due consideration, compare his movements, 

 his articulate speech, his mental capacities with the corresponding 

 gifts in the ape, the need for insisting on the boundaries between 

 the two is confirmed. 



Blind disciples of the Doctrine of Descent, as Darwin founded it 

 and others developed it, do indeed cross these boundaries without 

 hesitation, but they cannot possibly be regarded as giving a care- 

 fully thought-out and authoritative judgment on the actual state 

 of the case. Satisfactory, not to say probable, as this doctrine is, 

 it has not yet risen above the level of an ingenious hypothesis; and 

 incontrovertible evidence for the correctness of this hypothesis has 

 not yet been produced. Variation within the limits of species and 

 breed can be proved, can even be brought about; but transformation 

 of one species into another cannot be established in any case. As long 

 as this is so we are justified in regarding man and apes as creatures 

 of different nature, and disputing the descent of one from the other. 

 No attempt to discover or establish a common ancestor, no under- 



