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each other in their general anatomical structure, differ con- 
siderably in detail ; some of them approximate more closely to 
the human species than others. Consequently, many naturalists 
have arranged, or rather have endeavoured to arrange, the 
lower animals in a gradational series, according to the com- 
parative resemblance of each species to man. Commencing 
with the anthropoid apes, they have carried this series through 
the entire brute creation, vertebrate and invertebrate ; while 
some, passing the boundary which separates the animal from 
the vegetable kingdom, have placed its further extreme on the 
very confines of organic life. It is not my intention to discuss 
the anatomical differences between man and brute, but I would 
remark, in passing, that the theory of structural gradation 
appears to rest on a very slender foundation. The Quadru- 
mana undoubtedly approach the human species more nearly 
than any of the other mammalia ; but in what species of the 
mammalia are we to look for the next term of the series ? If 
we remove the Quadrumana, we remove the keystone of the 
gradational system, and the rest is a dead level as far as 
regards the greater part of the mammalia ; even the anthro- 
poid apes do not approach man in single file.* Therefore, if 
the naturalist likes to amuse himself with the Chinese puzzle 
of arranging the lower animals in a graduated series, there is 
no great harm done ; but the common-sense view of the matter 
is, that each class of animals having been created for the pur- 
pose of discharging special functions, the physical structure 
of each is regulated, not by the requirements of an imaginary 
system for which it is difficult even theoretically to assign a 
valid reason, but by the nature of the duties which each was 
intended to fulfil, as well as by the nature of the media in which 
each was intended to live. 
This system, resting as it does upon the most insufficient 
and unsatisfactory evidence, has been made the basis of a still 
more aerial structure. The Gradationist having marshalled 
the various species of animated beings in an imposing series, 
with the anthropoid apes at one end — the other being far away 
amongst the zoophytes,— the matter is next taken in hand 
by a more advanced theorist. The Progressionist conceives 
this graduated series as manifesting evidences of development 
* “ This much is certain, that each of these anthropoid apes has its 
peculiar characters by which it approaches man ; the chimpanzee, by the 
cranial and dental structure ; the ora.ng, by its cerebral structure ; the 
gorilla, by the structure of the extremities. None of these stands next to 
man in all points, — the three forms approach man from different sides with- 
out reaching him.” — Yogt, Vorlesungen uber den Menschen. 
