Buffon's Natural History. Volume 09 (of 10): Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &cBuffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de
History
Buffon's Natural History. Volume 09 (of 10): Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &c
Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de
Natural history
Internally this animal differs from man in the number of its ribs;
having thirteen, whereas man has only twelve. The vertebræ of the
neck are also shorter, the bones of the pelvis narrower, the haunches
more flat, and the orbits of the eyes sunk deeper. There is no spiny
apophysis to the first vertebræ of the neck; the kidnies are rounder
than in the human species, and the ureters have a different figure,
as well as the bladder and gall-bladder, which are much longer and
narrower. In almost every other part, as well externally as internally,
there is so perfect a resemblance to those of the human species, that
we cannot compare them without expressing our wonder and admiration,
that from such a similar conformation and organization the same effects
are not produced. For example, the tongue, and all the organs of the
voice, are exactly the same as in man, and yet this animal does not
speak; the brain is absolutely of the same form and proportion, and yet
it does not think. Can there be a more convincing proof, that matter
alone, however perfectly organized, cannot produce either speech or
thought, unless animated by a superior principle? or, in other words,
by a soul to direct its operations? Man, and the orang-outang, are
the only animals which have calfs to their legs, and their posteriors
formed for walking erect. They likewise are the only ones which
have a broad chest, flat shoulders, and the vertebræ conformable to
each other; and the only animals whose brain, heart, lungs, liver,
spleen, stomach, and intestines, are perfectly alike, and who have
a vermicular appendix. In short, the orang-outang has a greater
resemblance to man than even to baboons or monkeys, not only by all the
parts which I have indicated, but also by the largeness of the visage,
the form of the cranium, the jaws, teeth, and other bones of the head
and face; by the thickness of the fingers and thumb; by the shape of
the nails; by the articulations of the joints, sternum, &c. So that
since we find, by comparing this animal with those which resemble it
most, such as the magot, baboon, or monkey, it has a greater conformity
with the human than the animal species, which have all been mentioned
under the general name of apes, the Indians are excusable for having
associated it with man by the name of _orang-outang_, or the _wild
man of the woods_. As some of the facts we have mentioned may appear
suspicious to those who have not seen this animal, we shall support
them by the authority of the two celebrated anatomists Tyson[M] and
Cowper, who dissected it with a most scrupulous nicety, and have given
the results of the comparisons they made of all its parts with the
human species. I shall only observe, that the English are not confined,
like the French, to one single word to denote animals of this kind:
they have, like the Greeks, two different denominations, one for those
without tails, which they call apes, and the other for those with
tails, which they term monkeys.
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