Since the resembling tribes among; the lower animals differ so
remarkably from each other, as to their instinctive properties
or faculties and habits, each species having its prescribed and
characteristic laws of action, and its peculiar manner of existence,
which separate all the individuals comprehended in one
tribe from those which belong to species most nearly approaching
to it, it becomes interesting to us to know whether
any human races are distinguished from each other in a like
"manner. I f this should appear, after-due examination* to be
the fact, a strong argument would thence arise tending to establish
a-specific diversity between different tribes of men. If,
on the other hand, we should be able clearly to trace the same
mental endowments, similar natural prejudices and impressions,
the same consciousness, sentiments, sympathies, propensities,
in short, a common psychical nature or a common mind, participated
in by all the different branches of the human family?,
the result would be a strong inductive argument against the
existence of more than one human species, The most full
and complete investigation of this problem would require a
comprehensive survey of human nature in its different relations.
I cannot attempt to go-over so wide a field, but shall
endeavour to obtain satisfactory results from a survey of-the
subject in some particular points of view.
It will be advisable, before we proceed to a particular description
of different races of men, shortly to compare some of
the most striking universal characters of mankind with the
corresponding qualities of those tribes, among the lower Animals,
which most nearly approximate to man.
In the functions "of the animal economy it has often been
observed that the Simiæ most resemble man : in the general
structure of the body and limbs they approach most nearly to
the human kind : in the psychical-characters of the monkey
tribe we shall find a corresponding analogy to our own, and
though this remark can obviously have reference only to the
lower and merely animal qualities of man, it is a sort of
resemblance or correspondence which has powerfully fixed the
attention of naturalists, and even of casual observers.
The Simiæ, says M. Lesson, appear organized to be the
connecting link between man and- the lower orders of animals:
in general organization, indeed, they are much nearer to man
than to the brutes, and it ist,only in relation to intelligence
and j udgment that they remarkably recede from human beings ,
to mankind they bear the most complete resemblance in the
structure of the viscera and the destination of parts. Thus in
th e brain and its. connected structure^,, in the perfection of the
organs of sense,,of-sight, hearing, and touch, in the length and
position of the intestinal canal; every-thing in the -simiæ is- the
counterpart o f what, we discern in the human body. The
orang-outan is indeed the only-ape in the vermiform
appendix has been .found, which we know to be adherent to the
extremity of the cæcum; and it may bmproper- to observe, that
the stomach of the' white-rmnped semïiôpitheCuS • dissected ■ by
M. Otto, instead of Being ^simple was found to -be‘ composed
.of several spacious- cavities separated^ bÿrôÔùtraetiôns and in-
dicating that the animal is by nature éubjefetéd to a particular
diet, Cohsistingbf toots and pla*nts.
The brain of the simïæ has three lobe's, of which tHe j&ikf
•tenor covers the cerebellum. The researches óf M.'Tiedemann
indicate’ the3 most complete’ analogy in the Structure of thè
brain bétwèen the orangiqf Borneo and ‘ttikriy aiid-’gfeat' différences
between this oraUg ând the lower ‘ According
to Tiedemann, the bram' of the orang differs from that o f other
simiæ and approaches to the human, brain in a gib&t many
striking particulars, in respect to which differences have been
traced between the brain of man and that of ttfe monkey"
tribes in générai.* -
To these certainly remarkable analogies' presented by tne
organ of the understanding, M. Lesson ’subjbifiS the*' resemblances
which have been traced between mankind .and^the
* These particulars are as folloVs r I cite from M. Lesson; Is tv Absence of
the m ed uH a ry fapdcnlus, . named trapezium, which, im the animals possessed-
it,, is situated behind the cerebral ganglion, the point whence issue fhoaVditoey
and facial nerves, 2ndiy. The existence o f a sloping hollow,> pOsfcefior to the
cerebellum. 3rdly. In a greater number of furrows and laminae in die same
part. 4-tbly. In- the presence of two distinct maxillary tubercles, 5.thly. In more
numerous and at the same time less symmetrical convolutions and anfractuositres
of the cerebrum. 6thly. In the existence of fissures directed towards the cornu
ammonis. Now all these are characteristics of structure in the human brain.
Lesson, Hist, des Mammifères, tom. iii. p. 2®.