It was the more incumbent on one pronouncing on the
paramount problem, because the "sagittal ridge in the gorilla," as in
the orang, relates to and signifies the dental character which
differentiates all _Quadrumana_ from all _Bimana_ that have ever come
under the ken of the biologist. And this ridge much more "strikingly
suggests" the fierceness of the powerful brute-ape than the part
referred to as "large bosses." Frontal prominences, more truly so
termed, are even better developed in peaceful, timid, graminivorous
quadrupeds than in the skulls of man or of ape. But before noticing the
evidence which the teeth bear on the physical relations of man to brute,
I would premise that the comparison must not be limited to a part or
"fragment" of the bony frame, but to its totality, as relating to the
modes and faculties of locomotion.
Beginning with the skull--and, indeed, for present aim, limiting myself
thereto--I have found that a vertical longitudinal section brings to
light in greatest number and of truest value the differential characters
between lowest _Homo_ and highest _Simia_. Those truly and indifferently
interested in the question may not think it unworthy their time--if it
has not already been so bestowed--to give attention to the detailed
discussions and illustrations of the characters in question in the
second and third volumes of the "Transactions of the Zoological
Society.
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