The Descent of Man

ner with the improved breeds of cattle. A great
anatomist, Gratiolet, maintains that the anthropomorphous
apes do not form a natural subgroup;
but that the orang is a highly developed
gibbon or semnopithecus, the chimpanzee a
highly developed macacus, and the gorilla a
highly developed mandrill. If this conclusion,
which rests almost exclusively on braincharacters,
be admitted, we should have a case
of convergence at least in external characters,
for the anthropomorphous apes are certainly
more like each other in many points, than they
are to other apes. All analogical resemblances,
as of a whale to a fish, may indeed be said to be
cases of convergence; but this term has never
been applied to superficial and adaptive resemblances.
It would, however, be extremely
rash to attribute to convergence close similarity
of character in many points of structure
amongst the modified descendants of widely
distinct beings. The form of a crystal is determined
solely by the molecular forces, and it is