Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 8.djvu/819

 INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY 799

that we can conclude after considering all which precedes, and neglecting other relations, that man constitutes a species distinct from the anthropoid apes, laying aside all questions of origin and d escent. Man is superior to the anthropoid apes in the propor- tion of the parts of the body, in the size of the cranial cavity, in weight, in the convolutions of the brain, in quantity of gray matter, and in structure, mass, and quality of thinking material. This superiority is manifested in a palpable manner by definite characteristics excluding all real confusion between the anthro- poid apes and man. Man forms a distinct species by reason of appropriate variations and by digression of these from the maxi- mum limits, from the variations of inferior beings. In return the sense cavities are more developed among animals, the orbits, nasal cavities, sinus, masticating apparatus. Although inferior from the muscular point of view, to many animals, man is capa- ble of more complex movements ; from the point of view of sensibility and intelligence, he surpasses all. If, anatomically, the anthropoid apes are still nearer man than they are to the ordinary monkeys, for example, from the point of view of the cranial capacity and weight of the brain, there is nevertheless between them and the inferior varieties of humanity a consider- able difference of which the intermediary stages have disap- peared and nothing has come forth to supply them. Moreover, this difference from the anthropoid apes makes man's progress more rapid. There results a differentiation co-ordinating the skeleton, muscles, viscera, and eyes. This gives man the power of scientific observation, of prevision, and foresight.

The difference between the two species tends to become greater in proportion as the inferior populations disappear, whether by extinction or by fusion with civilization, and, on the other side, as the anthropoids themselves become eliminated.

On the whole, there is a general type, clearly determined and limited, common to all the mammalia; a particular type common to all the primates, comprising the monkey, anthropoid ape, and man ; a more special type common to the anthropoid apes and to man ; and, finally, a human type anatomically and physiologically determinate and recognizable. This human