ORDER QUADRUMANA. 333 



perhaps, that this part of the subject should have been dis- 

 cussed at the commencement, rather than at the conclusion 

 of our labours on the quadrumana, and truly, were we en- 

 gaged on an original work, on this department of natural 

 science, such an objection would not be without its weight ; 

 but the restrictions under which we are necessarily laid by 

 the duty of translators, render our present proceeding in 

 some some degree unavoidable ; and, after all, the alloca- 

 tion of a supplementary essay of this kind may be deemed 

 an affair of but minor consequence as far as utility 

 is concerned. 



The term Ape was originally applied to signify an ani- 

 mal without a tail ; with the face somewhat flattened, and 

 with teeth, hands, fingers, and nails resembling those of 

 man. It was also, supposed, like the human species, to be 

 capable of walking in an erect posture, nay, that method 

 of locomotion was presumed to be its natural and habitual 

 gait : how far this opinion was well founded we have al- 

 ready seen. This definition, which was derived from the 

 external character of the animal, and its estimated relations 

 with man, excluded all creatures with tails, all with pro- 

 truded visage, or elongated muzzle, all with curved, crook- 

 ed, or pointed nails ; and all, in fine, which evince, from 

 the character of their conformation, an habitual disposition 

 to walk on all-fours. 



The ancients appear to have been acquainted but with a 

 single animal to which this definition would apply, which 

 was the niOyxos of the Greeks, and the Simla of the Latins. 

 On this animal, Aristotle, Pliny, and Galen, have rested all 

 their physical comparisons and structural relations of the 

 ape with the human species. One point, however, seemed 

 to stagger them a little. Notwithstanding the strong 

 exterior resemblance of the pithecus to mankind, and the 

 still stronger traits of such analogy in internal conformation 

 (stronger they doubtless appeared in the then infancy of 



Vol, I. 2 A 



