On the adaptation of external nature to the physical condition of man : principally with reference to the supply of his wants, and the exercise of his intellectual faculties / by John Kidd.

  • Kidd, John, 1775-1851.
Date:
1833
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the adaptation of external nature to the physical condition of man : principally with reference to the supply of his wants, and the exercise of his intellectual faculties / by John Kidd. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    an unnecessary anxiety, have laboured to vindicate the supposed insult thus offered to the dignity of hu- man nature, by searching for some fixed and invari- able difference in the structure of corresponding parts of each. But the question is puerile: for let us even suppose that the whole and every part of the structure of the ape were the same as that of man; let every bone, and every muscle, and every fibre of the one corre- spond exactly with those of the other, not only in form and situation, but also in size and proportion; let the brain itself, that tangible instrument of the intellec- tual powers, be in structure the counterpart of tlic human; yet, unless in its functions it resembled that of man, in other words, unless there were associated with it his intellectual peculiarities and the moral and religious sense, to what dreaded conclusion would the closest resemblances lead? However near the approximation in their form, in their nature there must ever be an immeasurable distance between the two. The ape, compared with man, may indeed be among other animals proximus huic: still however it must be added, longo sed proximus intervallo. SECTION IV. Early and gradual Dcvclopement of the intellectual Faculties of Man. The helplessness of infancy then is but temporary: and a new scene soon opens to the contemplation of those who have sufficient opportunities of watching the developement of the human character: for, long as is the period, compared with the natural term of his own life, and longer still, compared with the cor- responding period in the life of other animals, before man attains the full stature of his mind as well as of his body; he at a very early season begins to mani- fest the superiority of his intellectual nature: he very soon begins to collect those materials for future