THE KINDRED OF MAN. 635 



parallel is found only in some South American monkeys and in one of the lowly 

 organized lemurs. 



The orang and gorilla have the same number of spinal verteDrse as man, but 

 in the curves of the backbone which they form, and which are vitally important 

 to his habitual attitude, the baboons bear a closer resemblance. So, too, with 

 the position of the occipital foramen in the base of the skull, enabling the head 

 to preserve a balance on the vertebral column — a necessary condition of an up- 

 right posture — and in the cranio-facial angle, a similar gap between man and the 

 anthropoids, with a closer approximation on the part of some of the lower forms, 

 may be traced. 



Owing to the articulations of the tarsal bones, no animal but man can habit- 

 ually walk erect, and the apes can approach such a position only with the help of 

 some external support ; the gorilla, chimpanzee and orang all walk by touching 

 the ends of the fingers or the knuckles on the ground, and in the gibbons the 

 arms are so long that the animal swings itself between them as on a pair of 

 crutches. Some of the South American monkeys, however, notably those of the 

 genus Ateles, are able to walk erect on the hinder extremities for a considerable 

 distance, the long tail serving, to some extent, to preserve the balance. 



It has been asserted and maintained by a number of European anatomists, 

 against the venerable authority of Professor Owen, that in the anthropoid brain, 

 the backward projection of the posterior lobes of the cerebrum overlap and com- 

 pletely hide the cerebellum from view, when looked at from above, as is the case 

 in man — an almost steady progression from the lowest types of brain towards this 

 arrangement being found throughout the mammalian series. It must be said, 

 however, that in three chimpanzees from which the brains were removed, a few 

 hours after death, by Professor H. C. Chapman and the writer, in spite of pre- 

 conceived notions, this was found to be clearly not the case, and in the orang, 

 the cerebellum was covered to a very slight extent only, postero-laterally. There 

 are few of the lower monkeys, however, in which the man-like relation of these 

 parts does not exist, and in one, at least, the squirrel monkey (Chrysothrix) of 

 South America, this posterior projection is even greater than in man himself. 



Observation renders it quite probable that mental capacity in these animals 

 has, to a considerable degree, maintained a relation to the complexity of detail in 

 brain structure, although undoubtedly, from a mere comparison of human and 

 anthropoid brains, a far greater degree of intellectual power than that which 

 really exists, might be expected from the latter; it should be remembered, how- 

 ever, in favor of the ape, that the specimens from which our ideas of their intelli- 

 gence have been derived, have for the most part, been very young, and it is pos- 

 sible that more mature age may bring with it a higher degree of mental faculty. 

 On the whole, however, it is quite certain that the intelligence of the lower ani- 

 mals has been greatly overestimated. All experienced observers of their actions 

 know how easy it is to place a motive and an understanding where none probably 

 exist. It is difficult, except after long training, to withstand the influence of the 

 subjective tendencies of the mind, which lead the observer to translate into the 



