MAN'S PLACE IN NATURE 



457 



will not be strictly man-apes, nor ape-men, but rather primitive 

 creatures uniting the possibilities of both. From that condition 

 men and apes have since 

 diverged and will con- 

 tinue to diverge. 



There is no doubt of 

 the truth of Huxley's 

 statement : 



"Thus whatever system 

 of organs be studied, the 

 comparison of their modi- 

 fications in the ape series 

 leads to one and the same 

 result that the structural 

 differences which separate 

 man from the gorilla and 

 the chimpanzee are not so 

 great as those which separate the gorilla from the lower apes." 



FIG. 286. Head of gorilla. (After Brehm.) 



In fact, as Haeckel has observed, 



"It is very difficult to show why man should not be classed with 

 the large apes in the same zoological family. We all know a man from 



an ape, but it is quite an- 

 other thing to find differ- 

 ences which are absolute 

 and not of degree only." 



It may be broadly 

 stated that man differs 

 from the apes in the 

 combination of the fol- 

 lowing characters: (1) 

 Erect walk; (2) ex- 

 tremities differentiated 

 accordingly, the great 

 toe not being oppos- 



able, the other toes little prehensile; (3) articulate speech; (4) 

 higher reasoning power. The erect walk is not an absolute 

 character. The higher apes walk on their feet, touching the 

 ground at times with their knuckles. The tailed monkeys 



FIG. 287. Face of gorilla. (After Brehm.) 



