CARUS, KARL GUSTAV. – German anatomist and biologist, born in Leipzig on 3 January 1789, died in Dresden on 28 July 1869, a follower of the philosophy of nature. He is noteworthy for the work Symbolik der menschlichen Gestalt and for his study of the “comparative symbolism” between the skeletons of humans and apes (Zur vergleichenden Symbolik zwischen Menschen und Affen-Shelett [Jena 1861]), in which he was the first to examine the proportions of human and gorilla skeletons, bringing to light “the dignity of the human organism” and its uniqueness. Religiously, he does not entirely free himself from the taint of pantheism.
BIBL.: R. Burckhardt, Geschichte der Zoologie, Leipzig 1907, p. 107 ff. Luigi Scremin