242 
The Rate of A nimal Development. 
[April, 
those he has indulged in abundantly in the course of his 
argument. . 
In the same vein as Davy and Whewell, teleologists and 
natural theologians, when enlarging upon the marvels of 
instindt, have seldom failed to (i trot out the colt, the calf, 
or the lamb, to invite our consideration to the chickens and 
the “ young ducks,” and to eredb upon the precocity of these 
creatures — as compared with the tedious development of our 
own species — a fancied wall of demarcation between man 
and beast. Had they been really actuated by a scientific 
spirit they would have felt it their bounden duty to ascertain 
whether all the lower animals were, in contrast to man, able 
to use their limbs soon after their birth. Had they done so 
they might have met with evidence similar to what is thus 
given by an adtual observer* in describing an infant orang- 
utan which had come into his possession The Mias 
like a very young baby, lying on its back quite helpless, 
rolling lazily from side'to side, stretching out its hands into 
the air, wishing to grasp something, but hardly able to guide 
its fingers to any definite objedt, and when dissatisfied 
opening wide its almost toothless mouth, and expressing its 
wants by an almost infantile scream. . . . When I had 
had it for about a month it began to exhibit some signs of 
learning to run alone. When laid upon the floor it would 
push itself along by its legs, or roll over, and thus make an 
unwieldy progression. When lying in the box it would lilt 
itself up to the edge into almost an eredt position, and once 
or twice succeeded in tumbling over.” 
Thus we see that the nearer brutes approach to man in 
their structure the more gradual is their development. The 
process which in the colt and the lamb is contracted so as 
to escape observation is here shown at very considerable 
length That the child, especially in the higher races of 
mankind, makes a still more gradual progress, is plainly a 
mere question of degree. , 
The young ape which Mr. Wallace observed was, beyond 
all reasonable dispute, acquiring the use of its limbs pre- 
cisely in the same manner as a human child. If the latter 
learns, by slow and laborious degrees, what muscles he 
must exert in order to effect any desired movement, so does 
the young ape. If the child cannot judge of the position 
and distance of objeas till it has by considerable practice 
learnt to refer its sensations to appropriate “ ideas,” the 
same must be said of the young Mias. But if the young 
* A. R. Wallace, Malay Archipelago, p. 45. 
