and progress of the human species. Lamarck, in his 'Philosophie
Zoologique,' distinctly lays down the doctrine that man is descended
from an ape-like ancestor, which gradually acquired the upright
position, not even now wholly natural to the human race, and maintained
only by the most constant watchfulness. The orang-outang was then the
highest known anthropoid ape; and it was from the orang-outang,
therefore, that the fancy of Lyell and other objectors in the
pre-Darwinian days continually derived the Lamarckian Adam.
The introduction of the chimpanzee into our European Zoological Gardens
gave a fresh type of anthropoid to the crude speculators of the middle
decades of the century; and in 1859, Paul du Chaillu, the explorer and
hunter of the Gaboon country, brought over to America and Europe the
first specimens of the true gorilla ever seen by civilised men. There
can be little doubt that the general interest excited by his narrative
of his adventures (published in London in 1861) and by the well-known
stuffed specimen of the huge African anthropoid ape so long conspicuous
in the rooms of the British Museum, and now surviving (somewhat the
worse for wear) in the natural history collection at South Kensington,
did much to kindle public curiosity as to the nature of our relations
with the lower animals. It is no mere accidental circumstance, indeed,
that Huxley should have brought out 'Man's Place in Nature' just two
years after Du Chaillu's 'Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial
Africa' had made the whole world, lay and learned, familiar with the
name and features of the most human in outer aspect among the anthropoid
family. Thenceforth the gorilla, and not the orang-outang, was popularly
hit upon by scoffer and caricaturist as the imaginary type of our
primitive ancestors.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account