The Vertical Human: Philosopher of Nature. Anthropos, the First of the Animals -- From Aristotle to the 16th Century: The Eclipse of Science -- The 16th Century: From Generation to Human Physiology -- Centuries in Search of Light -- The Century of Naturalistic Enlightenment -- The Place of Humans among Current and Fossilized Primates. From Natural Curiosity Cabinets to the First Primate Collections -- The Transition from the 18th to the 19th Century: Birth of Paleontology and Comparative Anatomy -- The Slow Recognition of Humans' Simian Origins -- Embryology, Fixist Anthropology and the Neanderthal Man -- The Decline of Transformism at the Museum national d'Histoire naturelle -- Transformist Paleontology Inaugurates the 20th Century.