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Darwin's hypothetical 'hairy arboreal quadrumanous ancestor, whose existence may or may not be really true, there can be no doubt that the actual historical remains set before us pre-Glacial man as evidently approaching in several important respects the higher monkeys.
Mary Cox warned them to have the spreads ready to smooth up over the contraband goodies, should the French teacher get wind of the orgy. "Forewarned is forearmed," urged Mary Cox. "We know what old Picolet is!" "But 'four-armed' doesn't always mean 'fore-handed'," chuckled Jennie Stone. "Nor quadrumanous!" snapped the Fox.
The next suggests a closer association of our ancestors of the olden time with "our poor relations" of the quadrumanous family than we like to acknowledge. Fortunately, however even if we must account for him scientifically man with his two feet stands upon a foundation of his own.
In these apes the tail, as a prehensile organ, reaches its highest degree of perfection; and on this account it would, perhaps, be correct to consider the Coaitas as the extreme development of the American type of apes. As far as we know, from living and fossil species, the New World has progressed no farther than the Coaita towards the production of a higher form of the Quadrumanous order.
If we now examine the leading characters of the physiognomy of three of the principal human sub-species, the Negro, the Mongolian, and the Indo-European, we can readily observe that it is in the two first named that there is a predominance of the quadrumanous features which are retarded in man; and that the embryonic characters which predominate are those in which man is accelerated.
There can be no doubt, therefore, that the ape's foot deserves that name just as much as the human foot does, and that all true apes are just as "bimanous" as man. The common distinction of the apes as "quadrumanous" is altogether wrong morphologically.
It must be borne in mind that the quadrumanous indications are found in the lower classes of the most developed races. The status of a race or family is determined by the percentage of its individuals who do and do not present the features in question. Some embryonic characters may also appear in individuals of any race, as a consequence of special circumstances.
Bruff followed as if understanding the call, and as the monkey sprang down the dog leaped after him, but did not descend the steps so cleverly as his quadrumanous friend, the fact being made plain to those on deck by a loud scratching and scuffling noise, followed by a heavy bump. "That there's the dog," said Billy sitting up and scratching his ear.
Even the term "Quadrumanous" has lately been shown by Professor Huxley, in a lecture delivered by him in the spring of 1860-61, which I had the good fortune to hear, to have proved a fertile source of popular delusion, conveying ideas which the great anatomists Blumenbach and Cuvier never entertained themselves, namely, that in the so-called Quadrumana the extremities of the hind-limbs bear a real resemblance to the human hands, instead of corresponding anatomically with the human feet.
Nevertheless, as Bischoff has pointed out, one of the most important distinctions between man and the apes is to be found in the external reproductive organs of the female. From the preceding rapid sketch the reader will be able to explain the meaning of most of the peculiarities of face and form which he will meet with. Many persons possess at least one quadrumanous or embryonic character.
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