rilla has a prehensile foot; indeed, nobody has ever doubted the fact. But a prehensile foot is not a true foot, according to the human standard, which is the point he seeks to prove. The articulations and the arrangement of the bones and muscles of the human foot, according to his own showing, necessarily prevent its becoming prehensile. Nobody ever doubted that the hind paw of an ape was a foot in the general sense of the term, though it is not quite so human in aspect and function as the hind paw of the brown bear and other plantagrades. Cuvier frequently speaks of the hind paws of apes as "feet," and it was precisely because they had feet which were prehensile and grasping, like a hand, that he named them quadrumana. The above conclusion, which Mr. Huxley has arrived at so laboriously, would be agreed to by Cuvier and every one else, for it is a selfevident fact.

But Mr. Huxley goes somewhat further. He says this foot "is in no sense a hand." Here he is at variance with Cuvier and all the rest of the world. A foot which is prehensile, and can grasp with perfect facility, and perform other functions of the hand, is certainly, in some sense, a hand, according even to the human standard. But the hind paw of a gorilla, which can grasp and perform all the other functions of the hand, nearly, if not quite, as perfectly as the fore paw which Mr. Huxley asserts to be "a true hand," is, in function and design, completely a hand, according to the gorilla standard of a hand.

So far Mr. Huxley's effort to solve the momentous "question of questions for mankind," which he has proposed, seems to amount to nothing more than an attack upon Cuvier's nomenclature, based on a supposed misnomer of an ape's paw; but he goes a step further in the conclusion which we have partly quoted above. He adds: "It is a foot which differs from that of man not in any fundamental character, but in mere proportions, in the degree of mobility, and in the secondary arrangement of its parts."

The truth of this assertion we deny. Of all animals, the foot of man alone is so constructed that it is capable of supporting the body constantly in an erect position, and of serving exclusively as the natural organ of locomotion. This constitutes a

distinguishing peculiarity in the anatomical structure of man, which is in direct correlation with the rest of his organism, and bespeaks him an intellectual and spiritual being, as well as the only erect animal. For, in consequence of this structure, the superior limbs are withdrawn from locomotion, and are constantly free to obey the behests of the mind for æsthetical, intellectual, and spiritual purposes.

Professor Dana has been the first one, we believe, to recognize this "cephalization" of the anterior limbs as an authoritative basis for zoological classification and establishing man's isolation and preeminence in the animal kingdom. In a short article published in the "New Englander," for April, 1863, he says,—“ Man is alone among mammals, in having the forelimbs withdrawn from the locomotive series and transferred to the cephalic series. The fore limbs in him serve primarily the purposes of the head, and are not for locomotion. A very large anterior portion of the body is thus turned over to the service of the head, so that the posterior or gastric portion of the animal reaches in man its minimum. Here, then, is a degree of cephalization of the body—that is, of subordination of its members and structure to head uses—which separates man widely from other animals, placing him, literally, alone."

Now the case is entirely different with the gorilla and the other “man-like apes." With them the anterior limbs are necessary organs of locomotion, as much so, indeed, as the posterior limbs. Both feet and hands perform this office very imperfectly on the surface of the ground, which is not the natural habitat of these animals. The structure of their feet does not admit of the easy application of the sole to the ground as in man, but the body is supported and propelled on the outside of the foot, aided by the knuckles of the hand. As the hand is a necessary organ of locomotion, so also the foot is designed by its structure to perform the functions of a hand, nearly, if not quite, as perfectly as the so-called hand. In fact, both are prehensile grasping organs, fitting these animals to climb and dwell in trees, which is their natural abode, justifying the appellation of quadrumanous, which Cuvier gives them in his classification. While the same bones and muscles which exist in the human

foot may be found in that of the gorilla, yet they are so arranged and modified as to perform very diverse functions, and indicate animals very diverse in nature.

But Mr. Huxley contends that similarity of anatomical parts, irrespective of functional or other differences, is proof that man belongs to the same Order as the gorilla, and therefore should be considered evidence of identity of nature and origin. He demands that there shall be some additional organ, or, what he calls, some absolute fundamental difference of structure of the same organ, in order to establish ordinal distinction and diversity of nature.

We will answer his demand for some specific anatomical difference of structure, by citing the flexor longus pollicis, which in man is inserted in the great toe alone, while in the gorilla it is distributed to the other toes, thus contributing to that prehensile or grasping faculty, which gives to the foot of this animal the function and character of a hand. We might also cite another fundamental difference belonging to the teeth, which organs have always been regarded as affording reliable distinctions for separate classification. The gorilla, in common with other apes, has invariably well-marked projecting tusks, with the accompanying diastema, or interval, in both jaws; while this brutal peculiarity is constantly wanting in the human dentition.

We cite these anatomical differences, to which many others might be added, not because we attach any importance to them in determining man's separation from the gorilla, but simply in compliance with Mr. Huxley's demand, and in order to show the weakness of his argument, which seeks to establish identity of nature from similarity of anatomical parts.

In order to appreciate fully the fallacy of his argument, let us suppose that a race of animals should be discovered similar to gorillas, equally devoid of speech and abstract reasoning, with feet as prehensile as their hands, fitting them to climb trees with equal facility, but presenting constantly the sole dif-ference of an additional toe, thereby enabling them to walk the earth as erectly as a man. Now, upon his principles, such an animal must be considered, in virtue of this anatomical differ

ence, superior to the gorilla, and be placed in a different and superior Order; while man, presenting characteristic differences vastly, nay, infinitely greater, must, for the want of this sixth toe, be classed amongst these lower brutes, as identical in nature and origin, and only differing from them in the degree of development.

Mr. Huxley examines the fore paw of the gorilla, or as he calls it, the terminal division of the fore limb, much less minutely than the foot, for he thinks there can be no question as to its being a true hand. He says:

"The terminal division of the fore limb presents no difficulty-bone for bone, and muscle for muscle are found to be arranged essentially as in man, or with such minor differences as are found as varieties in man. The Gorilla's hand is clumsier, heavier, and has a thumb somewhat shorter in proportion than that of man; but no one has ever doubted its being a true hand." p. 108.

This is certainly a very bold assertion, as well as a very untrue one, in view of the contrary opinion held by many eminent naturalists; and the only evidence he brings in proof of it, is his usual catholicon, viz., that the hand of other members of the monkey tribe, especially of the marmoset, whose thumb, he says, is a mere curved claw like the other digits' " is more different from that of the Gorilla than the Gorilla's hand is from Man's "—which, he tells us, is all that his argument requires him to show! With the exception of the Cheiromys,* which he cites on another occasion, he could not have selected a better example to show the worthlessness of his argument. He picks out for a comparison of hands, a little squirrel-like quadruped, whose thumbless fore paws are just as much hands as a squirrel's and no more-and who, had he the teeth of his brother cheiromys, might also have been ranked among squirrels; but inasmuch as all four of his feet are prehensile claws,

* Cheiromys (Rat with hands), or Madagascar rat. This animal having the tail and teeth of a squirrel, is classed by Cuvier among the "Squirrels." Our author however, in virture of its prehensile claws, and some other resemblances, has placed it in the same Order as the gorilla; and he cites, on page 101, its difference from the gorilla, in regard to teeth, as evidence that man should be placed in the same Order as these animals!

he has been placed among the Quadrumana, which Order embraces also the gorilla, and thus enables Mr. Huxley to institute his comparison.

Mr. Huxley, however, contends that the gorilla is not a quadruman (though he is so called) inasmuch as he has proved that he has true feet and true hands, the same as man; but his argument requires him to go further, and prove that the marmoset (whose hand he terms a claw) is also not a quadruman, and that he too has true feet and true hands according to the human standard. If he cannot prove this he must leave the marmoset among the Quadruma, and place the gorilla in a different Order. But if he separates the gorilla from this Order of Quadrumana-then his comparison is not legitimate, and his argument falls to the ground;-for as it is based on the assertion "that the hand (of the marmoset) is more different from that of the gorilla than the gorilla's hand is from manʼs,”—it is only by showing that these animals, presenting such great differences, belong to the same natural Order, that he can advance it in proof that man also, despite his differences, should be included in the same Order with them. On the other hand, unless he proves that the marmoset, like the gorilla, is also a bimanous biped, he has no right to place him in the same Order for the purpose of instituting a comparison of hands. We think he will find it impossible to transmute the claws of this little animal into true hands and feet according to the human type; and until he brings proof to the contrary, the little fellow must remain either a quadruman or a quadruped. In either position, the marmoset cannot hold the same ordinal rank with his biped gorilla, and is therefore unavailable as a subject of comparison, and fatal to Mr. Huxley's argument, which demands that both animals shall be in the same Order.

We will, however, allow Mr. Huxley to assume, with manifest inconsistency, what he ought to have proved, and will grant him the right to institute his comparison, whatever may be the diversity of structure of these animals, and to consider them as being in the same Order, whatever name they may be called by. Under these circumstances, let us see what is his invariable argument in this case, as well as in all others, by which he seeks to