2 



GORILLAS AND CHIMPANZEES 



civilised lands are struggling with the problem of 

 their possible relationship to man. 



Pursuant to the desire of learning as much as 

 possible about their natural habits, faculties, and 

 resources, they are being studied from every avail- 

 able point of view, and every characteristic compared 

 in detail to the corresponding one in man. Hence, 

 in order to appreciate more fully the value of the 

 lessons to be drawn from the contents of this 

 volume, we must know the relative planes in the 

 scale of nature that man and monkeys occupy, 

 wherefore we shall begin our task by comparing 

 them in a general way ; but as the scope of this 

 work is restricted mainly to the great apes, the com- 

 parison will likewise be confined to that subject, 

 except in so far as to define the relations of man 

 and ape to monkeys. 



Since monkeys differ among themselves so widely, 

 it is evident that all of them cannot in the same 

 degree resemble man. And as the degree of interest 

 in them as a subject of comparative study is ap- 

 proximately measured by the degree of their 

 likeness to man, it is apparent that all cannot be 

 regarded as of equal interest. But since each forms 

 an integral part of the scale of nature, they are of 

 equal importance in tracing out the continuity of the 

 order to which they belong. 



The vast family of simians has perhaps the widest 

 range of types of any single family of mammals. 

 Beginning with the great apes, which so closely 

 resemble man in size, form and structure, they 



