Ape
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Ape. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
the name formerly applied to any animal of the monkey kind, but now restricted to the man-like tailless apes found in the equatorial forests of the Old World. The chimpanzee, gibbon, gorilla, and orang-utan are apes. The young are more human and less brutal in appearance than older individuals. The adult ape has the same number of teeth as a man, but its canine teeth are very large. Its skull has thick ridges and crests. The forehead is low, and the brain cavity small. The great toe is short and capable of use somewhat like a thumb. The skeleton is stronger than that of man. The legs are shorter than those of man, the arms are longer. The ape can stand upright, but not with ease. Its spine is better adapted to climbing. All apes are clothed with hair, except on the face and palms. They lack the cheek pouches and tails of monkeys. When walking, they usually double the fingers under, walking on the knuckles instead of the palm. They live mainly on fruit. The "ape" of Barbary is a short-tailed monkey. It is found also on the rock of Gibraltar, being the only representative of the monkey family in Europe. It is a favorite trick animal with the showman. See Monkey ; Gorilla ; Chimpanzee ; Orang-Utan
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a common name of a number of quadrumanous animals inhabiting the Old World (Asia and the Asiatic islands, and Africa). and including a variety of species. The family includes the chimpanzee, gorilla, orang-outang, etc., and has been divided into three genera, troglodytes, simia, and hylobates. The highest and most man-like monkeys, including gorilla, chimpanzee, orang-outang, gibbon, and several other species, are called Anthropoid Apes. They are all arboreal, and inhabit Africa, southeastern Asia, and the Malay Archi-
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's 1910 entry drew a firm line between man and ape — "low" forehead, "small" brain cavity — and Collier's in 1921 still called them "quadrumanous," four-handed. Taxonomy has since erased that line: humans are placed in the same family as chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans, and the chimpanzee genome differs from ours by little more than one percent. A fifth great ape unknown to either writer, the bonobo, was recognised as a distinct species in the early 1930s, and from 1960 Jane Goodall's work at Gombe showed wild chimpanzees making and using tools, a skill both entries would have reserved for man. Every great ape species is now listed as endangered or critically endangered, and the Barbary "ape" of Gibraltar — still Europe's only wild monkey, still a tourist draw — is itself a threatened species.
Written for this edition, 2026.