236 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



animal which displays no capability of that consecutive 

 train of thought which presupposes the power of speech. 



It may be sufficient in a general treatise like the present, 

 to advert only to the above points of material conformation, 

 in which the apes differ from mankind, without descending 

 into the minutiae of anatomical detail, not unmindful that 

 the particular points noticed, have decided and direct refer- 

 ence in man to the employment of his immaterial faculty. 



It seems uncertain whether the ancients were acquainted 

 with these animals. Galen observed in what he called the 

 Pithecus, a. double opening in the cavity of the larynx. 

 This is a character peculiar we believe to the orangs, and 

 the notice of it would seem to argue an acquaintance with 

 them. But as the other particulars remarked by Galen 

 will not apply, it appears impossible to decide exactly what 

 animal he meant. It is not improbable that what we have 

 taken for the pithecus of the ancients is no other than the 

 cynocephalus of antiquity. 



We may remark how widely different were the sentiments 

 of these ancient philosophers on the subject, from those of 

 the modern sages, to whom we have alluded. In the peru- 

 sal of their writings we find no cause to blush for the degra- 

 dation of human nature, or the humiliation of human rea- 

 son. In the pithecus, notwithstanding his gross and clumsy 

 approximation to the human figure, they saw nothing but 

 the mere animal, destitute of the rational and reflective 

 faculty. The limited extent of their geographical know- 

 ledge, and their inaccurate information concerning remote 

 and barbarous tribes, led them, it ic true, to suppose 

 varieties of the human species which had no existence. 

 Thus we find mention among them of Satyrs, of Pigmies, 

 of Centaurs, of " men whose heads do grow beneath their 

 shoulders." These their philosophers referred to races of 

 mankind little known, or they rejected as the inventions of 

 fabulists and poets — but inthequadrumana which they had 



