Gorillas & ChimpanzeesGarner, R. L. (Richard Lynch)
Science
Gorillas & Chimpanzees
Garner, R. L. (Richard Lynch)
Chimpanzees; Gabon -- Description and travel; Garner, R. L. (Richard Lynch), 1848-1920 -- Travel; Gorilla
In the vital organs of the two there is perhaps still greater unity
of structure, and equal unity of function in all essential details.
The difference of structure is only to the extent of making the organ
conform to the general plan of the animal, and the difference of
function is only one of degree. Since the same characters vary quite
as much among men without changing their identity as such, it cannot
be sufficient ground to widen the hiatus between man and ape; in fact,
the physical likeness of the two grows stronger as the comparison is
extended into more minute and scrutinising details. To the casual
observer the general resemblance is apparent, but to the student the
unity becomes evident.
In addition to the facts we have cited, the ape has the same habits
of rest and sleep; lives on the same kind of diet, which is eaten and
assimilated in the same manner as with man; is subject to many of the
same diseases which attack the same organs, and affect them in the same
way as with man; he suffers like pains and dies in the same manner as
man under like conditions.
The scope of this book is intended only to embrace the chimpanzee
and gorilla, but the comparison which we have shown applies in the
name to all four of the anthropoid apes, but must be qualified in a
few instances to make it apply to the others. These apes differ among
themselves in certain respects in form and habits, and we will omit a
detailed comparison of the monkeys as not being relevant to the subject
in hand; but it will not be out of place to mention in a general way
the chief point in which they differ from men and apes.
There is no fixed type that will represent all kinds of monkeys.
Within the limits of their own family they present a great variety of
types, but the one marked difference between them as a unit, and the
ape as another, is, that the spinal column of the monkey is always
extended into a tail, the first vertebra of which is joined to the
base of the _sacrum_, while the ape has no tail, but the spinal column
terminates with a small pointed bone called the coccyx, exactly the
same as in man. The number of bones and the number of ribs in monkeys
differ from those in the ape or in man, and also vary among different
types of monkey.
There are many little shades and grades of difference all along the
line, but the unity of design throughout the whole range of simian life
is such as to show a continuity of plan and purpose in all essential
details of the animal economy. With man and ape the physical structures
are one, so far as they pertain to autonomy: their habits are one, so
far as they pertain to the means of life; their faculties are one, so
far as they pertain to the animal polity, yet they may not be of a
common stock.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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