Pleasant Ways in ScienceProctor, Richard A. (Richard Anthony)
Science
Pleasant Ways in Science
Proctor, Richard A. (Richard Anthony)
Science
And now, turning to the Anthropoid apes, we find ourselves at the
outset confronted by the question, Which of the four apes, the gorilla,
the orang-outang, the chimpanzee, or the gibbon, is to be regarded
as nearest to man in intelligence? So far as bodily configuration is
concerned, our opinion would vary according to the particular feature
which we selected for consideration. But it will probably be admitted
that intelligence should be the characteristic by which our opinions
should be guided.
The gibbon may be dismissed at once, though, as will presently appear,
there are some features in which this ape resembles man more closely
than either the gorilla, the orang-outang, or the chimpanzee.
The gorilla must, I fear, be summarily ejected from the position of
honour to which he has been raised by many naturalists. Though the
gorilla is a much larger animal than the chimpanzee, his brain barely
equals the chimpanzee’s in mass. It is also less fully developed in
front. In fact Gratiolet asserts that of all the broad-chested apes,
the gorilla is—so far as brain character is concerned—the lowest
and most degraded. He regards the gorilla’s brain as only a more
advanced form of that of the brutal baboons, while the orang’s brain
is the culminating form of the gibbon type, and the chimpanzee’s the
culminating form of the macaque type. This does not dispose of the
difficulty very satisfactorily, however, because it remains to be shown
whether the gibbon type and the macaque type are superior as types to
the baboon types. But it may suffice to remark that the baboons are
all brutal and ferocious, whereas the gibbons are comparatively gentle
animals, and the macaques docile and even playful. It may be questioned
whether brutality and ferocity should be regarded as necessarily
removing the gorilla further from man; because it is certain that the
races of man which approach nearest to the anthropoid apes, with which
races the comparison should assuredly be made, are characterized by
these very qualities, brutality and ferocity. Intelligence must be
otherwise gauged. Probably the average proportion of the brain’s weight
to that of the entire body, and the complexity of the structure of
the brain, would afford the best means of deciding the question. But,
unfortunately, we have very unsatisfactory evidence on these points.
The naturalists who have based opinions on such evidence as has been
obtained, seem to overlook the poverty of the evidence. Knowing as we
do how greatly the human brain varies in size and complexity, not only
in different races, but in different individuals of the same race, it
appears unsatisfactory in the extreme to regard the average of the
brains of each simian species hitherto examined as presenting the true
average cerebral capacity for each species.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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