81 



comparing quadrumanous species, in reference to the question at 

 issue. It is exaggerated in the human child, owing to the acquisi- 

 tion of its full, or nearly full size, by the brain, before the jaws 

 have expanded to lodge the second set of teeth. It is an anthropoid 

 character in which the quadrumana resemble man in proportion 

 to the diminution of their general bulk. If a gorilla, with milk- 

 teeth, have a somewhat larger brain and brain-case than a chimpanzee 

 at the same immature age, the acquisition of greater 1 bulk by the 

 gorilla, and of a more formidable physical development of the skull, 

 in reference to the great canines in the male, will give to the chim- 

 panzee the appearance of a more anthropoid character, which really 

 does not belong to it ; which could be as little depended upon in a 

 question of precise affinity as the like more anthropoid characters of 

 the female, as compared with the male, gorilla or chimpanzee. 



Much more important and significant are the following cha- 

 racters of the human skull : the position and plane of the occipital 

 foramen; the proportion and size of the condyloid and petrous 

 processes; the mastoid processes, which relate to balancing the 

 head upon the trunk in the erect attitude ; the small premaxillaries 

 and concomitant small size of the incisor teeth, as compared with 

 the molar teeth. These characters relate to the superiority of the 

 psychical over the physical powers in man. They govern the feature 

 in which man recedes from the brute ; and to them may be added 

 the prominence of the nasal bones in most, and in all the typical, 

 races of man. The somewhat angular form of the bony orbits, 

 tending to a square, with the corners rounded off, is, likewise, a 

 good human character of the skull; which is difficult to compre- 

 hend as an adaptive one, and therefore the better in the present 

 inquiry. The same may be said of the production of the floor of 

 the tympanic or auditory tube into the plate called 'vaginal.' 



Believing the foregoing to be sufficient to test the respective 

 degrees of affinity to man within the limited group of quadrumana 

 to which it is now proposed to apply them, I forbear to cite the 

 characters of minor importance. The question at issue is, as 

 between the anthropoid apes and man. Cuvier deemed the orang 

 (Pithecus) to be nearer akin to man than the chimpanzee (Troglo- 

 dytes) is. That belief has long ceased to be entertained. I pro- 

 ceed, therefore, to compare the gorilla, chimpanzee, and gibbon, in 

 reference to their human affinities. 



Most naturalists entering upon this question would first look 

 to the premaxillary bones, or, owing to the early confluence of 



G 



