IC 



QUADEUMANA.- 



-MAMMALU.- 



-SlMIAD-E. 



such as to render tlie justice of placing tliem ia the 

 present order almost a matter of doubt. These aber- 

 rant forms are the Cheiromys and the Galeopitliecus 

 already alluded to. 



Commencing with the Simiie or Monkeys, as un- 

 doubtedly the highest group of animals, and including 

 ilie species which approach most closely to man, we 

 find that these also present certain characters, agreeing 

 most remarkably with the geographical distribution of 

 tlie creatures, by which they may be divided into two 

 sections. The monkeys of the Eastern hemisphere 

 have the nostrils placed close together, and separated only 

 by a narrow septum or partition ; the American mon- 

 keys, on the contrary, have the nostrils placed wide 

 apart on the sides of the nose, which is broad and flat. 

 Hence the former are called Catarrhine, and the latter 

 Plati/rrhine monkeys. 



Family I.— SIMIAD^. 



The Catarrhine monkeys, or monkeys of the Old 

 World, constitute only a single great family, that of the 

 Simiadoe, the genera of which this is composed resem- 

 bling each other so closely in their most essential pecu- 

 liarities, and often melting into each other by such 

 imperceptible gradations in their minor characters, that 

 not only is any further subdivision of them into accu- 

 rately-defined subordinate groups almost impossible, 

 but it is sometimes difficult even to separate the genera 

 themselves by well-marked peculiarities of structure. 



All the SimiadiE bear the same number of teeth as 

 the human species, namely, four incisors, two canines, 

 and ten molars and premolars in each jaw, making a 

 total of thirty-two ; they also agree with man in the 

 general form and arrangement of the teeth, except that 

 the incisors are more oblique than in any variety of the 

 liuman race, and there is always a vacant space in the 

 vicinity of the canines. The tubercles of the molar 

 teeth are obtuse. The tail is sometimes altogether 

 deficient, and when present it varies greatly in length, 

 being sometimes a mere tubercle, whilst in other cases 

 it is longer than the body; but it is never prehensile at 

 the tip. Naked raised patches or callosities occur on 

 the buttocks of nearly all the species ; these are formed 

 by a thickening of the epidermis supported upon a 

 peculiar process of the ischiimi, and constitute a sort of 

 natural cushion upon which the animals sit when taking 

 their repose. In most cases, also, those monkeys are 

 provided with cheek-pouches in which they stow away 

 a supply of food for future consumption. 



Taking the general characters of these animals into 

 consideration, we may distinguish among them three 

 priircipal groups— those of the Apes, Monkeys, and 

 Baboons. In the first of these groups, or the true 

 apes, the tail and cheek-pouches are entirely deficient, 

 and the buttocks are either destitute of callosities or 

 have them very small. It is amongst these apes that 

 we find the species most nearly approaching man in 

 their organization ; and hence these animals are called 

 Anthropoid or Anthropmnor})lwus (Manlike) Apes, by 

 most naturalists. Of tlie species at present known, the 

 one which undoubtedly presents the greatest amount 

 of resemblance to man is 



THE CHIMPANZEE {Troglodytes niger). — By all 

 authors, with the exception of Cuvier, and one or two 

 who adopted the opinion of that great naturalist, the 

 chimpanzee has been regarded as the highest species 

 of the apes; and the character upon which Cuvier 

 founded his preference for the orang-outan has been 

 shown by later researches to be fallacious. Cuvier 

 states that the volume of the brain and the promi- 

 nence of the forehead is greater in the orang-outan 

 tlian in the chimpanzee ; and later writers, following 

 Cuvier, have defined the supposed difference in this 

 respect by means of the facial angle, saying that in the 

 orang this angle is 05°, whilst in the chimpanzee it is 

 only 50°. This, however, is due to the comparison 

 only of animals of dilTerent ages, the forehead being 

 far more prominent in the young animal than in 

 older individuals of both species, fi-om the projection of 

 the muzzle increasing as the creature approaches ma- 

 turity ; so that, if adult specimens of the chimpanzee 

 and orang-outan be compared together, the difl'erence 

 will be found to be very small, and, if anything, rather 

 in favour of the chimpanzee. The limbs in the chim- 

 panzee, also, more nearly resemble those of man in 

 structure ; the arms are not much longer than in the 

 luunan species, whilst the legs considerably exceed 

 those of the orang in development, both as regards 

 their comparative length, their muscularity, and their 

 capability of supporting the animal in an erect posture. 

 Both in the chimpanzee and the gorilla, the two 

 species of the genus Troglodytes, the number of ribs is 

 thirteen, whilst the orang-outan has twelve ribs like 

 the human subject. 



The adult chimpanzee measures nearly five feet in 

 height when standing erect. Its body is covered with 

 long, coarse, black or blackish-brown hair, which is 

 very thick upon the back, but clothes the breast, belly, 

 and limbs more sparingly ; at the sides of the head and 

 face the hair is veiy long, and hangs down in the form 

 of whiskers ; the face and ears are nearly naked, and 

 of a brownish flesh colour ; the ears nearly resemble 

 those of the human species in form, but are very large ; 

 the eyes are ratlier small, and the lips thick. The 

 hands and feet are nearly naked, and the hairs of the 

 fore-arm are directed towards the elbow, where the}' 

 meet those of the upper arm, and usually project in a 

 point. 



The chimpanzee is a native of the vast forests of the 

 west coast of Africa, extending from the river Gambia, 

 north of Guinea, as far as the district of Benguela, or 

 over a space of about thirty degi'ees of latitude. It 

 lives among the trees, usually avoiding the neighbour- 

 hood of man, but forming little huts with branches of 

 trees for its protection from the weather, at an elevation 

 of thirty or forty feet from the ground. Its food 

 consists principally of fruits, and it is also fond of the 

 succulent terminal bud of the cabbage palm, which is 

 likewise a fovourite article of human food in tropical 

 regions. In the trees the chimpanzees are very active, 

 and display astonishing strength and agility in their 

 movements ; the adult males especially are exceedingly 

 powerful, and from their being armed with large canine 

 teeth are very formidable animals. The chimpanzees 

 are described by several travellers as arming them- 



