THE GORILLA AND OTHER APES. 299 



number and arrangement of the teeth is different. The 

 feature, however, which most naturalists have selected as 

 the characteristic distinction between the apes of the Old 

 World and of the New World is the position of the nostrils. 

 The former are called Catarhine, a word signifying that the 

 nostrils are directed downwards; the latter are called 

 Platyrhine, or broad-nosed. The nostrils of all the Old 

 World apes are separated by a narrow cartilaginous plate 

 or septum, whereas the septum of the New World apes is 

 broad. After the apes come, according to Mivart's classi- 

 fication, the half-apes or lemuroids. 



I ought, perhaps, to have mentioned that Mivart, in 

 describing the lemuroids as the second sub-order of a great 

 order of animals, the Primates, speaks of a man as (zoolo- 

 gically speaking) belonging to the first sub -order. So that, 

 in point of fact, the two sub-orders are the Anthropoids, 

 including the Anthropos (man) and the Lemuroids, includ- 

 ing the lemur. 



The classification here indicated will serve our present 

 purpose very well. But the reader is reminded that, as 

 already mentioned, naturalists do not adopt at present any 

 uniform system of classification. Moreover, the term 

 Stmiadce is usually employed and will be employed here 

 to represent the entire simian race, /.<?., both the Simiadae 

 and the Cebidse of Mivart's classification. 



And now, turning to the Anthropoid apes, we find our- 

 selves at the outset confronted by the question, Which of 

 the four apes, the gorilla, the orang-outang, the chimpanzee, 

 or the gibbon, is to be regarded as nearest to man in in- 

 telligence ? So far as bodily configuration is concerned, our 

 opinion would vary according to the particular feature which 

 we selected for consideration. But it will probably be 

 admitted that intelligence should be the characteristic by 

 which our opinions should be guided. 



The gibbon may be dismissed at once, though, as will 

 presently appear, there are some features in which this ape 

 resembles man more closely than either the gorilla, the orang- 

 outang, or the chimpanzee. 



