The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1883-02-22

Is Man the Highest Animal ?

The measure of geological rank is
the specialization exhibited by all the
organs, taken collectively. Special
ization may be exaggerated in one or
several organs, without the animal
attaining as a whole high
rank. This is the case in man. The
measure of specialization is afforded
by embryology, which shows in, earlier
stages the simplicity and uniformity
of structure, which in later stages is
replaced by complexity. The human
body preserves several other impor-
tant embryonic features. In man we
find three series of high defferentia-
tions, namely: in the brain, in the
changes induced by or accompanying
the upright position, and third, in the
apposibility of the thumbs to the
other digits. These are the principal,
though of course not strictly the only
characteristics of man, which show.
that he is more specialized than any
other animal. In other respects he
shows a still more striking inferiority.
It is of course a familiar observation
that his senses are less acute than
those of many animals-he has neither
the keen vision of the falcon, nor the
delicate scent Of the dog. He is
equally inferior in many structural
features. His teeth are of low
mammalian type, as is shown both by
his dental formula and by the pres
ence of cusps upon the crowns OF the
teeth, popularity of the lower man.
malta, entirely lost in the horse, the
elephant, and many other "brutes. "
His limbs show a similar inferiority,
since they are little modified, pre-
serving even the full number of five
digits, and in respect Of these mem
bers man stands therefore very low,
lower than the COW and the pig. He
plants the whole sole of his foot upon
the ground, yet none except the lower
mammalia, together with man and his
immediate congeners, are plantigrade.
So too with his stomach, which is so
simple as compared with that of a
ruminant, and indeed is Of about the
same grade as that of the carnivora.
It makes, however, still more forci-
BILE impression to learn that the hu-
man face, which we admire when
withdrawn under the fore brain or
cerebral hemispheres. In our faces
the f@tal disposition is permanently
retained, with changes, which when
greatest are still inconsiderable. In
quadrupeds the facial region acquires
prominent development leading to
the specialization Of the jaws and sur
rounding parts, which brings the face
to condition much higher than that
of the fatus. Hence the projecting
snout is a higher structure than the
retreating human face. These facts
have long been familiar to anatomists,
but | am not aware that the inferi-
ority Of the human to the brute coun-
tenance has heretofore been consid-
cred scientific conclusion by any one.
Yet that inferiority is incontroverti-
BILE and almost self-evident.
The preceding statements render it
clear to the reason that man is not in all
respects the highest animal-and that
it is a prejudice of ignorance that
assumes that the specialization of the
brain marks man as a above all ami
mails in the geological system. It does
give him a supremacy by his greater
power of self-maintainance in the
struggle Of the world, but that has
nothing whatever to do with his NOR
biological rank. There is nothing in
morphology thatanywise iustifies as
signing, as is actually done, an almost
infinitely greater systematic value to
the specialization of the brain and
specialization of the limbs, stomach,
teeth, face, etc., hence it is impossible
to call man even the highest mammal.
It is also doubtful whether mammals
would be regarded as the highest class
of the animal kingdom, were they not
our nearest relatives. Let us beware
of claiming to be the head Of organic
creation, since the Carnivora and
Ungulata are in many respects higher
than we. l believe that it is just as
unscientific to call any one animal
species the highest, as to pitch upon
any one plant to stand at the head of
the vegetable kingdom.-C. S. Minot.