158 ON CERTAIN MODERN VIEWS 



coid or cake-like. Strange to say, the same form of placenta is to be 

 found in tlie Apes as in Man. Man is, therefore, identical with the 

 animals immediately below him in the earliest stages of his formation, 

 as well as in the physical causes by which he originates. The mode 

 of nutrition, both before and after birth, is the same for Man and 

 these animals. Man is, in substance and in structure, one with the 

 brutes. 



As regards physical characteristics after birth, by relative ad- 

 measurement of the limbs of Apes, we find that in whatever proportion 

 of its limbs the Gorilla differs from Man the other Apes differ more 

 widely from the Gorilla ; and consequently such differences of propor- 

 tion can have no ordinal value. In the Gorilla the total number of 

 vertebrae, taken together, equals the number of the vertebrae of Man, 

 although the numbers of each kind do not agree in both animals. In 

 Man the normal arrangement is 7 cervical, 12 dorsal, 5 lumbar, and 

 5 sacral (consolidated), to which may be added 4 small bones which 

 join to form the coccyx. The Gorilla has, normally, 13 dorsal verte- 

 brae and corresponding ribs, whilst Man has only 12. But Man has 

 occasionally 13 pairs of ribs, and the Gorilla occasionally 14. Yet 

 the lower Primates differ more from the Gorilla in this particular 

 than the Gorilla does from Man. As, for example, the Douroucouli 

 has normally 14 dorsal and 8 lumbar vertebrae, and a Lemur, (Ste- 

 nops tardigradus), has 15 dorsal and 9 lumbar. The Gorilla and 

 Chimpanzee when young have curves in the vertebral column, to 

 a certain extent resembling those to be observed in Man, whilst in 

 young Ourangs the column is either straight, or the concavity is 

 anterior, instead of posterior. In the Pelvis the distinctions are 

 equally marked. That of the Gibbon has quite a quadrupedal charac- 

 ter, and differs much more from that of the Gorilla, than the Pelvis of 

 the Gorilla differs from that of Man. Again, in the matter of the 

 Cranium ; the lowest human skull has a capacity nearly double that 

 of the highest Gorilla. Yet the difference in the capacity of the crania 

 of the different races of men is greater, absolutely, than that between 

 the lowest Man and the highest Ape, whilst relatively, it is about the 

 same. Thus the maximum human skull contains 1 14 cubic inches. 

 The minimum - - - 62 " 



The difference being ... - 52 



