CHAPTER II. 
Apes, Monkeys, and Lemurs,— -Order Primates. 
The Man-like Apes. 
Family SlMHD.fi. 
Everybody knows what an ape or a monkey is, and the proverb “ mischievous as 
a monkey ” reveals the estimation in which the latter animals are commonly held. 
The more or less human-like form, the frequent tendency to assume an upright 
position, coupled with their hand-like feet, would be amply sufficient to distinguish 
the group to which these animals belong from all others, were it not for the 
circumstance that there are the less well-known creatures termed Lemurs, which, 
while evidently related to monkeys, yet differ from them in so many respects as 
to render it almost or quite impossible to give any characteristics which will 
absolutely distinguish the order to which they belong from all others. This is, 
however, a difficulty with which the zoologist has often to put irp with, and to 
make the best of. 
That the higher apes are closely related in their bodily structure to man 
is obvious to all, and it is a fact that the differences between some of these apes 
and man are, from a purely anatomical point of view, of far less importance than 
those by which the lower monkeys are separated from the higher apes. It has, 
indeed, been attempted to show that apes and monkeys are sharply distinguished 
from man by the circumstance that while man is two-handed, apes and monkeys 
are four-handed. The difference between the foot of one of the larger apes and 
that of man is, however, merely one of degree, and is much less than that between 
the apes and the lowest representatives of the order, as is well shown in the accom¬ 
panying illustration, which illustrates the various forms assumed by the hand and 
foot of these animals. 
Although the larger apes are those which come nearest to man in their 
general organisation, yet the strong ridges on the skulls of the adults, and the 
consequent overhanging and prominent eyebrows, give them an expression which, 
at the best, is but a gross caricature of the human countenance. It is, however, in 
the young of these animals, where the ridges on the skull are much less developed, 
and the tusks or canine teeth of the males have not attained the dimensions which 
they reach in the adult state, that we find a much more human-like cast of 
expression. Moreover, some of the smaller apes, in which the great ridges on the 
skull are never developed, approach much more nearly in the shape of their skulls 
to the human type. The larger apes are, indeed, repulsive animals in the adult 
condition; and it is usually only the smaller kinds of monkeys which are kept as 
pets. 
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