1 50 T]ie Descent of Man. Paet 1. 



and jtelvis, the curvature of his spine, and the position of his 

 head. The family of Seals offers a good illustratioQ of the small 

 importance of adaptive characters for classification. These 

 animals differ from all other Carnivora in the form of their 

 bodies and in the structure of their limbs, far more than does 

 man from the higher apes; yet in most systems, from Ihat of 

 Cuvier to the most recent one by Mr. Flower,* seals are ranked 

 as a mere family in the Order of the Carnivora. If man had not 

 been his own classifier, he would never have thought of founding 

 a separate order for his own reception. 



It would be beyond my limits, and quite beyond my knowledge, 

 even to name the innumerable points of structure in which man 

 agrees with the other Primates. Our great anatomist and 

 philosopher. Prof. Huxley, has fully discussed this subject,^ and 

 concludes that man in all parts of his organisation differs less 

 from the higher apes, than these do from the lower members of 

 the same group. Consequently there " is no justification for 

 " placing man in a distinct order." 



In an early part of this work I brought forward various 

 facts, shewing how closely man agrees in constitution with the 

 higher mammals; and this agreement must depend on our 

 close similarity in minute structure and chemical composition. 

 I gaTC, as instances, our liability to the same diseases, and to the 

 attacks of allied parasites ; our tastes in common for the same 

 stimulants, and the similar effects produced by them, as well as 

 by various drugs, and other such facts. 



As small unimportant points of resemblance between man and 

 the Quadrumana are not commonly noticed in systematic works, 

 and as, when numerous, they clearly reveal our relationship, I 

 will specify a few such points. The relative position of our 

 features is manifestly the same ; and the various emotions are 

 displayed by nearly similar movements of the muscles and skin, 

 chiefly above the eyebrows and round the moiith. Some few 

 expressions are, indeed, almost the same, as in the weeping of 

 certain kinds of monkeys and in the laughing noise made by 

 others, during which the corners of the mouth are drawn back- 

 wards, and the lower eyelids wrinkled. The external ears are 

 curiously alike. In man the nose is much more prominent than 

 in most monkeys ; but we may trace the commencement of an 

 aquiline curvature in the nose of the Hoolock Gibbon; and this 

 in the Semnopithecus nasica is carried to a ridiculous extreme. 



The faces of many monkeys are ornamented with beards, 

 whiskers, or moustaches. The hair on the head grows to agreal 

 < ' Proc. Zoolog. Son.' 1863, p. 4. 

 ' ' tvidence us to Mud's Place in Nature,' 1863, p. 70, tip lasim. 



