MAN AND APE COMPARED 



3^ 



descend by degrees along the scale till they end in 

 the little marmosets, which are almost on the level 

 of rodents. But the descent is so gradual that it is 

 difficult to draw a sharp line of demarcation at any 

 point between the two extremes. There is, how- 

 ever, now an effort being made to separate 

 this family into smaller groups, but the lines 

 between them must be dim and wavering, and the 

 literature of the past has a tendency to retard the 

 effort. 



We shall not digress from the trend of our sub- 

 ject, however, at this time, to discuss the problems 

 with which zoology may have to contend in the 

 future, but will accept the current system and 

 proceed. 



All the varied types that belong to the simian 

 family are, in the common order of speech, known 

 as monkeys, but the term thus used is so broad in its 

 meaning as to include all the forms of that vast 

 group, wherefore it is vague and obscure, for some 

 of these resemble man more than they resemble 

 each other. The name should only be applied to 

 those having tails and short faces, but there is a 

 small group, which have no tails at all, that are 

 properly known as apes. While they are all simians, 

 they are not all monkeys. It is with this small 

 group, without tails, that we propose chiefly to deal. 

 We select them because of their likeness to man, 

 and having noted the similitude, the result may be 

 compared with other types of the same order. There 

 are only four of these apes, but as a whole they 



