An account of the regular gradation in man, and in different animals and vegetables ... / by Charles White. Read to the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester ... in the year 1795 / by Charles White.

  • Charles White
Date:
1799
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An account of the regular gradation in man, and in different animals and vegetables ... / by Charles White. Read to the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester ... in the year 1795 / by Charles White. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

    48/202 page 24
    [ *4 ] quadrumanus and quadrupeds: the defcent in this refpe£t is fo gentle, that Pr. Tyfon's pigmy, when it walked as a quadruped, retted upon its knuckles, and never touched the ground with the palms of its hands. Some apes, baboons, and monkies have regular catamenia* ; fapajous and fagouins have no fuch difcharge. There is a wonderful variety in the tails of this genus: fome have tails twice as long as their bodies, and prehenfde, that is adapted to lay hold of objects as a hand ; others again have none at all. The magot, or Barbary ape, ferves as a link to connect the apes and baboons: it has a fmall portion of fkin at the rump which gives it the appearance of a tail. The next is the little baboon; one of which I have feen whofe tail was not an inch long. .After this comes the crefted baboon, whofe tail is feven in- ches long. The Jimia nemeflrina, or pig-tailed baboon, in like manner forms a link between the baboons and monkies. The douc is an animal allied to the monkies, but at the fame time has fome refemblance to the fapajous.'f' Mr. John Hunter, in his obfervations on certain parts of the animal ceconomy, Ipeaking of the placenta of a monkey, * Le Gibbon, Le Magot, &c. les femelles font comme les femmes, fujettes a un ecoulement periodique de fang. Buffon, tom. 14. Simla femina menftruat. Linruei Syjl. Nat. tom. 1. p. 25. *f Here it is neceflary to difcountenance the opinion of Lord Montboddo, that fome of the human fpecies have tails. Were this true, it would break the law of gradation j for, in defcending through the fpecies of apes, we meet with no tails till we reach the baboons, which are farther removed from man than the apes are.
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3