114 HUXLEY 



the aperture of the nostrils pointing downwards, 

 whence the term catarrhine ; they are arboreal in their 

 habits, and, mainly, vegetarians. 



The Chimpanzee is about five feet in height, nearly 

 black, like the negro, has arms which reach below the 

 knee, and a slightly curved back-bone. (The S-like 

 shape of man's back-bone is one of the cooperating 

 causes of his erect position, stability being thereby 

 given to the structure, so that nine times as great a 

 vertical force is required to bend it as if it had been 

 straight. The back-bone of the savage is less curved 

 than that of civilised man.) The chimpanzee has 

 one pair of ribs more than man. The feet are flat- 

 soled, and shorter than the hands, and have an oppo- 

 sable toe, which, in all the anthropoids, acts as a 

 thumb, the feet being used for climbing and grasping. 

 The fingers of the hand are long and powerful, but 

 the thumb is smaller than that of a man, with the 

 lines and furrows on whose hand those on the hand 

 of the ape correspond. The impostors who ply the 

 trade of palmistry may note this fact, either for the 

 purpose of reading the fate and fortune of the an- 

 thropoids, or, what would be equally reasonable in the 

 case of their dupes, determining the future of these 

 from the creases in their trousers. The skull of the 

 chimpanzee approximates nearest among the anthro- 

 poids to man's, and the brain, which is half the size 



