Evidence as to Man's Place in NatureHuxley, Thomas Henry
Science
Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature
Huxley, Thomas Henry
Apes; Evolution; Human beings -- Origin
The Gibbons are the smallest, slenderest, and longest-limbed of the
man-like apes: their arms are longer in proportion to their bodies than
those of any of the other man-like Apes, so that they can touch the
ground when erect; their hands are longer than their feet, and they are
the only Anthropoids which possess callosities like the lower monkeys.
They are variously coloured. The Orangs have arms which reach to the
ankles in the erect position of the animal; their thumbs and great toes
are very short, and their feet are longer than their hands. They are
covered with reddish brown hair, and the sides of the face, in adult
males, are commonly produced into two crescentic, flexible excrescences,
like fatty tumours. The Chimpanzees have arms which reach below the
knees; they have large thumbs and great toes, their hands are longer
than their feet; and their hair is black, while the skin of the face
is pale. The Gorilla, lastly, has arms which reach to the middle of the
leg, large thumbs and great toes, feet longer than the hands, a black
face, and dark-grey or dun hair.
For the purpose which I have at present in view, it is unnecessary that
I should enter into any further minutiae respecting the distinctive
characters of the genera and species into which these man-like Apes
are divided by naturalists. Suffice it to say, that the Orangs and the
Gibbons constitute the distinct genera, 'Simia' and 'Hylobates'; while
the Chimpanzees and Gorillas are by some regarded simply as
distinct species of one genus, 'Troglodytes'; by others as distinct
genera--'Troglodytes' being reserved for the Chimpanzees, and 'Gorilla'
for the Enge-ena or Pongo.
Sound knowledge respecting the habits and mode of life of the man-like
Apes has been even more difficult of attainment than correct information
regarding their structure.
Once in a generation, a Wallace may be found physically, mentally, and
morally qualified to wander unscathed through the tropical wilds of
America and of Asia; to form magnificent collections as he wanders;
and withal to think out sagaciously the conclusions suggested by his
collections: but, to the ordinary explorer or collector, the dense
forests of equatorial Asia and Africa, which constitute the favourite
habitation of the Orang, the Chimpanzee, and the Gorilla, present
difficulties of no ordinary magnitude: and the man who risks his life by
even a short visit to the malarious shores of those regions may well
be excused if he shrinks from facing the dangers of the interior; if he
contents himself with stimulating the industry of the better seasoned
natives, and collecting and collating the more or less mythical reports
and traditions with which they are too ready to supply him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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