as affording in the mammalia the most trustworthy indications of affinity, namely, the dentition.
'The number of teeth in the Gorilla and all the Old World monkeys except the lemurs is thirty-two, the same as in Man, and the general pattern of their crowns the same. But besides other distinctions, the canines in all but Man project in the upper or lower jaws almost like tusks. But all the American apes have four more teeth in their permanent set, or thirty-eight in all, so that they differ in this respect more from the Old World apes than do these last from Man.
If therefore, by reference to this character, we place Man in a separate order, we must make several orders for the apes, monkeys, and lemurs, and so, in regard to the structure of the hands and feet before alluded to, 'the Gorilla differs far more from some of the quadrumana than he differs from Man.' Indeed, Professor Huxley contends that there is more difference between the hand and foot of the Gorilla and those of the Orang, one of the anthropomorphous apes, than between those of the Gorilla and Man, for 'the thumb of the Orang differs by its shortness and by the absence of any special long flexor muscle from that of the Gorilla more than it differs from that of Man.' The carpus also of the Orang, like that of most lower apes, contains nine bones, while in the Gorilla, as in Man and the Chimpanzee, there are only eight.' Other characters are also given to show that the Orang's foot separates it more widely from the Gorilla than that of the Gorilla separates that ape from Man. In some of the lower apes, the divergence from the human type of hand and foot, as well as from those of the Gorilla, is still greater, as, for example, in the spider-monkey and marmoset.[1]
If the muscles, viscera, or any other part of the animal fabric, including the brain, be compared, the results are declared to be similar.
- ↑ Huxley, ibid. p. 29.
