MAN AND APES. 
125 
A singular and beautiful genus, widely distributed over 
the continent of Africa, and containing many species, is called 
Galago, They have feet of very peculiar construction, are 
very active in their movements, and great leapers. 
Another genus of Half-Apes is so exceptional as to form 
a family by itself. It is the Tarsier (Tarsius). These little 
animals inhabit the Islands of Celebes and Borneo, and have 
a foot of the Gralago type, but still more exaggerated. (Plate 
XCV. fig. 6.) 
The last genus of the sub-order, which also ranks as a 
family, is the Aye- Aye (Cheiromys). (Plate XCV. fig. 7). This 
very remarkable animal was discovered by Sonnerat in Mada- 
gascar, in 1780, and was never again seen till 1844, when a spe- 
cimen was forwarded to Paris. It is now represented in our 
national collection by two stuffed specimens and by a skeleton ; 
and there is also a skeleton in the Museum of the Eoyal 
College of Surgeons. • The Tarsier and the Aye-Aye are the 
two animals which depart most widely from the general type 
of organization prevalent in the order Primates. 
The groups of which this order consists may be tabulated 
as on p. 126. 
Thus it becomes evident that the position of the Grorilla 
is in the African group, of the latisternal sub-family, of 
the Old World ape family, of the Anthropoid division of the 
order Primates. This is the answer to the first of the three 
questions proposed. 
The second and more interesting question now follows : 
i “ What are the degrees of resemblance to man which the 
various kinds of apes exhibit?” 
It may be well to begin with what is most manifest and 
external — the hair. 
All the Apes and all the Half-Apes agree together, and 
differ from man in having the body almost entirely clothed 
with copious hair, and especially in never having the back 
naked. 
The postero-inferior part of the body is indeed conspiciously 
naked, and the skin there thickened in the Baboons and long- 
tailed monkeys of the Old World. But the presence of these 
; naked species (technically called ischial * callosities) can hardly 
be an approximation to the nakedness of man, since both in 
' Simla and in Troglodytes they are wanting, while in Hylohates 
they are exceedingly small. 
On the other hand, the absence of these dermal thickenings in 
I the Orang, Chimpanzee and Grorilla, is no especial mark of affinity 
* So called because they cover the lower part of that portion of the 
haunch-bone w’hich is called the ischium. 
