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The natural history of monkeys, opossums and lemurs
The natural history of monkeys opossums and lemurs Author:James Rennie Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Ii in. Apes ciinliTtuel- The Ciiimi-anzee. (Simia Troglodytes). This highly interesting animal, the simia troglodytes of Linnaeus, and troglodytes niger of... more » more recent naturalists, has been, with the exception of a single eminent zoologist, universally placed at the head of the brute creation; Baron Cuvier alone contesting its right to occupy this rank in favour of the orang-outan. Subsequent observers, however, have satisfactorily established the pre-eminence of the chimpanzee; its form, its proportions, and its anatomical structure, as shown by the excellent memoir of Mr. Owen on the comparative osteology of both species, decidedly approximate more nearly to the human type than those of the orang; its attitude, its gait, and its habits are likewise more anthropoid, and even the character upon which M. Cuvier (bunded his preference of the Indian species, the apparently superior cerebral development, is so evanescent as to be confined to a very early period of the animal's life, and entirely disappears as it approaches to maturity. In other respects, the relative form and proportions of the extremities, those organs upon which the most important habits and functions of life depend, are in the chimpanzee very nearly the same as in man ; the arms descend but a little below the knee when the animal stands upright; the heel is large and well proportioned ; the sole of the foot broad, and capable of affording a firm support to the body in the erect posture; the legs and feet articulated nearly in a straight line with the thighs, the former being provided with a distinct though small calf; and the cranium plain, and without sagittal or interparietal crests. In the orang-outan, on the contrary, the arms nearly touch the ground in the upright attitude ; the legs and feet are distort...« less