APPENDIX I 



ANIMAL LIFE AND OURS 



A. Our Relation to Animals 



I. Affinities and Differences between Man and Monkeys. 



In one of the works of Broca, a pioneer anthropologist of renown, 

 there is an eloquent apology for those who find it useful to con- 

 sider man's zoological relations. 



" Pride," he says,' " which is one of the most characteristic traits 

 of our nature, has prevailed with many minds over the calm testi- 

 mony of reason. Like the Roman emperors who, enervated by all 

 their power, ended by denying their character as men, in fact, by 

 believing themselves demigods, so the king of our planet pleases 

 himself by imagining that the vile animal, subject to his caprices, 

 cannot have anything in common with his peculiar nature. The 

 proximity of the monkey vexes him, it is not enough to be king of 

 animals ; he wishes to separate himself from his subjects by a deep 

 unfathomable abyss ; and, turning his back upon the earth, he takes 

 refuge with his menaced majesty in a nebulous sphere, ' the human 

 kingdom.' But anatoiny, like that slave who followed the con- 

 queror's chariot crying. Memento te hominem, esse, anatomy comes 

 to trouble man in his naive self-admiration, reminding him of the 

 visible tangible facts which bind him to the animals." 



Let us hearken to this slave a little, remembering Pascal's 

 maxims : " It is dangerous to show man too plainly how like he is 

 to the animals, without, at the same time, reminding him of his 

 greatness. It is equally unwise to impress him with his greatness, 

 and not with his lowliness. It is worse to leave him in ignorance 

 of both. But it is very profitable to recognise the two facts." 



It is many years since Owen — now a veteran among anatomists 

 — described the "all-pervading similitude of structure" between 



