The Marmosets, on the other hand, exhibit the same number of teeth as
Man and the Gorilla; but, notwithstanding this, their dentition is very
different, for they have four more false molars, like the other
American monkeys--but as they have four fewer true molars, the total
remains the same. And passing from the American apes to the Lemurs,
the dentition becomes still more completely and essentially different
from that of the Gorilla. The incisors begin to vary both in number
and in form. The molars acquire, more and more, a many-pointed,
insectivorous character, and in one Genus, the Aye-Aye ('Cheiromys'),
the canines disappear, and the teeth completely simulate those of a
Rodent (Fig. 17).
Hence it is obvious that, greatly as the dentition of the highest Ape
differs from that of Man, it differs far more widely from that of the
lower and lowest Apes.
Whatever part of the animal fabric--whatever series of muscles, whatever
viscera might be selected for comparison--the result would be the
same--the lower Apes and the Gorilla would differ more than the Gorilla
and the Man. I cannot attempt in this place to follow out all these
comparisons in detail, and indeed it is unnecessary I should do so.
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