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NATURE 
481 

THURSDAY, APRIL 20, 1871 


APE RESEMBLANCES TO MAN 
HE Zoological Society can hardly fail to derive 
decided material advantage from the publication of 
Mr. Darwin’s “ Descent of Man.” It has been said that 
already there is a perceptible increase in the visitors to 
the monkey-house, though an early spring has no doubt 
co-operated with scientific zeal in the promotion of 
pilgrimages to the Regent’s Park, undertaken in the 
interest of a more than Chinese worship of ancestors. 
These visits would, perhaps, be considerably increased if 
it were very widely known that a fine specimen of a 
closely-related structural ally was there to be seen and 
heard, and one the resemblance of which to us has, I 
venture to think, not been generally appreciated suff- 
ciently. I allude to the fine specimen of the Hoolock 
Gibbon which has been some time at the Gardens, and 
which appears to rejoice in good health, good temper, and 
good voice. 
Differing so greatly and fundamentally as I do from 
Mr. Darwin, it is with sincere pleasure that I give my 
testimony to the correctness of his appreciation of the 
value and bearing of man’s bodily structure on his zoo- 
logical position. There can, I think, be no doubt that his 
frame is so closely related to that of the anthropoid divi- 
sion of the Old World apes, that to accord to it the rank of 
a family is to go to the extreme of maintainable distinc- 
tion. Descending, however, to smaller divisions, it is 
generally taken for granted that the palm of resemblance 
to ourselves can be disputed by the Orang (Simia), or by 
the African genus Troglodytes (which includes both the 
Gorilla and Chimpanzee) alone. The third member, 
however, of the anthropoid Simian Graces—the genus 
Hylobates (long-armed apes or Gibbons)—has claims to 
advance for an award in its favour which I am disposed 
to consider not unworthy of consideration. Assuming, 
for argument’s sake, the truth of Mr. Darwin’s hy- 
pothesis that man’s body was derived by natural genera- 
tion from some form of ape, it may, I think, possibly be 
the case that we have in the existing Gibbon the repre- 
sentative of an ancestor more in the direct line than either 
the Orang or the African forms, and this in spite of the 
many points in which the Gibbon recedes yet further from 
human structure. For though it is indisputable that we 
can enumerate a greater number of points of resemblance 
between man and Simia or Troglodytes than between 
man and the Gibbons, while it would be easy to draw out 
a catalogue of details by which the last-named apes differ 
more from man than do Simia and Troglodytes, never- 
theless there are certain points in which the Gibbon genus 
resembles Homo which are striking and perhaps signifi- 
cant. Although the enormous length of the arms disguises 
the resemblance, yet the proportions of the Gibbon’s frame 
(as in some respects long ago pointed out by Professor 
Huxley) are singularly human. The length of the leg as 
compared with the trunk, and the form and proportion of 
the bony thorax, are points which may be mentioned. 
Again, a Gibbon (the Siamang) is the only ape which 
possesses that striking human feature—a true chin. 
The slight prominence of the nose too is also very 
J SOE. IIT. 

remarkable, a point which has not escaped the notice of 
Mr. Darwin, and is to be seen in the living specimen 
here referred to. Again, the power, quality, and compass 
of the voice are qualities justly dwelt upon by the last- 
named author; and, finally, the gentle, yet quick and 
active nature of the Gibbon is eminently noteworthy. 
On the other hand the Orang is a very specially 
organised, quite aberrant beast (as I have elsewhere en- 
deavoured to show), and the brain in the genus Troglo- 
dytes is considered by Gratiolet to indicate altogether other 
relationships. Now it is not impossible, on the hypothesis 
assumed, that the Orang, Gorilla, and Chimpanzee may be 
types which have really diverged further from that anthro- 
poid root-form which most nearly resembled man than has 
the Gibbon, and that adaptations to conditions may have 
superinduced many of those human resemblances which 
at present characterise them. It seems difficult, certainly, 
to apply this view to some details, such ¢.g. as the vagi- 
nal process of the temporal bone on the basis cranii. On 
the other hand, it is not in the highest but in one of the 
lowest of the Simiadz that I have found an anchylosed 
styloid process to be occasionally present. 
A very interesting fact is the great Miocene Gibbon of 
Europe, the Dryopithecus, which goes to confirm the view 
here suggested as to the dignity of Hylobates; but of 
course we can but speculate inconclusively till Palaeontology 
furnishes us with the nearest extinct representatives of the 
Gorilla, Chimpanzee, and Orang. 
To prevent misconception, I may add that fully recog- 
nising the truth of Mr. Darwin’s appreciation of man’s 
zoological position, which I have ever maintained and 
indeed laboured to support, I none the less completely 
differ from him when I include the totality of man’s being. 
So considered, Science convinces me that a monkey and 
a mushroom differ less from each other than do a monkey 
and a man. 
ST. GEORGE MIVART 
THE COLLECTION OF INVERTEBRATE 
ANIMALS IN THE FREE PUBLIC MUSEUM, 
LIVERPOOL 
I: 
E have mentioned in a previous article * the divi- 
sion of the series of Invertebrate Animals in the 
Liverpool Museum into 216 groups. The following is the 
plan of arrangement adopted in connection with each group, 
Wherever circumstances permit the plan includes: 
(1) A printed schedule. (2) Exotic species. (3) British 
representatives. (4) The printed tablet. (5) Earliest 
fossils. (6) Diagrams and other illustrations. (7) Species 
and varieties on a more extended scale. 
(1) The schedule, of which an example follows, is 
printed in large type, and is placed conspicuously at the 
head of the drawer ; it is designed to show the derivation 
of the group, ¢.g.— 
Ae * Group 198. 
SUB-KINGDOM—Aznu/losa, Skeleton external, ringed. 
PROVINCE—Arthropoda, Limbs jointed. 
CLass—/usecta, Legs six. 
SuB-CLASS—Metabola, Transformations complete. 
ORDER—Lefidoptera, Wings with scales. 
* See Nature, vol. iii. p. 202. 
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