Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 13.djvu/450

434 these fangs, we find, just as we did before, that there is a greater difference here between the man-apes and the lower monkeys than between the man-apes and man. The canines are either much more developed or there is a change in the total number of teeth indicative of a greater departure from the human type of dentition.

You will remember that I called attention to the fact that throughout the animal kingdom we were to find the greatest changes in the structure of the extremities of the limbs, because these were brought



into constant use against the immediate surroundings of the animal. In truth, the greatest differences between the gorilla and man are found in the feet. The hands are not very unlike a man's; every bone and muscle is here again in its place; the thumb is a little shorter and the whole hand heavier. The muscles of the arm are more powerful and the hand is used for coarser work than man's, but after all not for work very different in kind. With them the gorilla builds a nest to sleep in, breaks off boughs, handles its food, and also attacks its enemy, holding him fast so that it can bite him. We do all these things with our hands; and there is a legal term, mayhem, to denote the crime of mutilation