I I 8 HUXLEY 



when it is erect ; the soles of the feet turn inward, a 

 feature explained by their arboreal functions, and con- 

 cerning which Professor Osborn reports a droll re- 

 mark of Huxley's. He said, " When a fond mother 

 calls upon me to admire her baby, I never fail to re- 

 spond ; and while cooing appropriately, I take ad- 

 vantage of any opportunity to gently ascertain 

 whether the soles of its feet turn in, and tend to sup- 

 port my theory of arboreal descent." l The chest of 

 the gibbon approximates nearest to that of man's, and 

 it has callosities or sitting-pads on the buttocks. It 

 can run for some distance on its feet, but it lives in 

 tall trees, and is a rapid leaper, springing as much as 

 forty feet from tree to tree. Like the chimpanzee, it 

 fights with its teeth. 



In contrast and resemblance to these four anthro- 

 poid apes is man, " erect and featherless biped," be- 

 tween whom and his semi-erect and hairy congeners 

 there is no fundamental differences in structure, the 

 variations being no greater than in any other allied 

 group of animals. It is true that no anatomist could 

 mistake the bones of a man for those of a gorilla ; 

 but the differences between the one and the other are 

 less than those between a gorilla and the lowest Pri- 

 mates, say, a lemur. Like all other animals, the Pri- 

 mates originate from a fertilised egg-cell; the primor- 



1 II. 424. 



