CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO 



THE CHARACTERS OF HOMO 



I. LINNAEUS, when giving names to all known ani- Manre- 

 mals, designated man as Homo sapiens. The generic 



name, Homo, is of course derived from the Latin. The bratesin 



structure 



specific term sapiens, from the same source, means 

 "knowing" or "wise"; we use the word "sapient" in 

 English. The genus Homo is placed in a family Ho- 

 minidse, which is only one of several families constitut- 

 ing the order Primates, of the class Mammalia. When 

 we come to consider the characters of man, we find 

 that they are mostly such as are also possessed by 

 numerous animals. Thus the vertebral column is found 

 in all vertebrates ; the warm blood and hair on the body 

 are common to Mammalia in general, to cat and dog, 

 squirrel and mouse. On closer inspection we observe 

 that the tissues of the body - - the striated and un- 

 striated muscle, the nerve tissue, the connective tissue, 

 fat, cartilage, bone, epithelium, gland tissue, lymph, 

 and blood - - are all closely similar to those found in 

 other vertebrates, and in many cases even in inverte- 

 brates. The organs or parts, made up of these tissues, 

 - the eyes, nose, ears, heart, lungs, liver, etc., - - all cor- 

 respond to parts readily discernible in other mammals. 

 So also the embryology, the order of development, is 

 like that of other creatures. Certainly man does not 

 represent an entirely new plan of creation, so far as his 

 physical nature goes. 



2. Yet, in the midst of all these points of resemblance, Special 

 we have no difficulty in observing differences ; we recog- 

 nize a human being at once. There are, indeed, more of 

 these peculiarities than the non-anatomical person can 

 discern. Here is a list of the more striking characters 

 of Homo : 



435 



