APATITE, a mineral substance crystallised in the regular six-sided prism, usually terminated by a truncated six-sided pyramid. It occurs variously modified by the removal of its lateral sides and angles. Its specific gravity varies from 3/5 to 3.5. It is scratched by felspar, but scratches fluorspar. In colour it passes from white through various shades of yellow to green and blue, and some specimens possess a red tint. It is usually translucent, but rarely transparent. From the analysis of G. Rose, Apatite appears to be a compound of phosphate of lime with fluoride of calcium, in which the fluorine is more or less replaced by its isomorphous element, chlorine.
This mineral principally occurs in the Primitive rocks, and is found in the tin-veins of St. Michael's Mount, Cornwall, and also in those of Bohemia and Saxony. It has also been observed in a massive mineral called phosphorite, which appears to possess a similar chemical con stitution, and has been found abundantly in beds alternating with limestone and quartz, near Logrosan, in Estremadura in Spain. Since the practice of applying phosphate of lime to the soil has come into use, it was proposed to employ this mineral ; hut it does not appear that any of-the phosphate of lime which is now used in artificial manures is obtained from this source. The phosphate of lime thus employed seems to owe its origin to an organic cause. [CoraomEs.] APE is sometimes employed in Zoology to express a genus of Quadrumanous Mammals, which closely approaches to the human species in anatomical structure, and is justly regarded as the connect ing link between man and the lower animals. The word ape seems to be of doubtful origin : in German it is Affe, from which the verb (Ten appears to have come. This is perhaps more probable than to suppose that affe comes from iijjen. The name exists, with very slighevaria tion, in all the modern languages of Teutonic origin ; as Ape in English, Affe in German, A ap in Dutch, &c. These also are the only European languages which possess original appropriate names to distinguish those animals from monkeys in general. Our own language is even more copious than others in terms for dist4suishing the different characters of this class of animals ; thus we say that an Ape is a monkey without a tail, and a IlaGeon a monkey with a abort tail, reserving the term MusLry more particularly for those apecies which have very long tails; and though our early writers use thew! three words Indiscriminately as aynonymes, and apply them indifferently to the tame animal, yet the signification' here given have generally pre veiled since the time of Ray, and are now almost exclusively adopted. It must be confessed however that these signification are extremely vague, and certainly do not express the zoological relations which subsist between the different sections of this group of animals.
According to its modern zoological definition, the genus Ape, or Piiheems, comprises those quadrumanona mammals which have the teeth of the same and form as in man, and which possess neither tails nor cheek pouches This definition, whilst, on the one hand, it excludes certain tailless baboons and monkeys, comprehends, on the other, the three subgenera of °rungs, Chimpanzees, and Gib bons. Nor are these the only characters which the Apes share in the inferior animals. The greet length of the fingers and anterior extremities, compared with theme baind, are precisely what wo observe among winged mammals, only that the fingers are not connected by a flying membrane ; and their economy and habitat equally corre spond with this intermediate structure. They are neither confined to the surface of the earth like the generality of mammals, nor do they possess the power of elevating themselves into the air, like the bats ; but they choose it middle habitat, the forest', where they habitually reside, and where they move about with en ease and velocity which can only be compared to actual flight On the other hand, when compelled by circumstances to traverse any part of the earth's surface, their pace, properly speaking, is neither that of a biped nor of a quadruped ; they de not walk upright like a man, nor yet do they walk upon all-fours like the lower animals. The great length of their arms prevents them from adopting either of these modes of progression in its simple form, but they avail themselves of this very circumstance in another manner. Their long arms serve them instead of crutches, and their pace is precisely that of a lame man who walks with the assistance of these instruments. From the common. They, of all other animals, approach most nearly to the human species m organisation, although their points of inferiority are more numerous than at first sight appear. The arms are so long as almost to touch the ground when the animals stand erect on their hind legs ; but the legs themselves are scarcely one-third of the entire height The legs moreover are not in the same line with the thighs; the knees are turned outwards, and the feet are articulated at the ankle In such a manner that their soles turn inwards so as to face or be opposed to ono another. By these means the Apes are enabled to embrace or grasp the trunks and branches of trees with much greater force than If their members were constructed like our own. They thus become essentially sylvan or arboreal animals, and never voluntarily abandon the forests, where they find at once the most congenial food and the most perfect security.