PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY DURING THE QUARTER. 239 



found yet, nor shall we ever find it, for the impassable gulf of intellect 

 separates the brute from man, and no moDkey that ever was created will bridge 

 over the gap ; but the bairier of intellect does not operate between ordinary 

 mammals. There have been from time to time abnormal creatures brought for- 

 ward as mis8irjg links, but they have always been human beings with only some 

 monkey-like resemblances. 



" Of all those I have 6een, the best was a little girl, exhibited about three years 

 ago in Loi don, called Krao, or the Missing Link. She was without doubt an 

 ordinary child, very hairy, of the fame type as the Burmese family lately- 

 exhibited here ; in fact, she came En m the same part of the world, not from 

 Burma, but from the adjacent kingdom of Siam. The points dwelt upon were 

 her hairiness, flexibility of her jf ints : she could lay ber fingers back till they 

 touched her fore-arm ; a habit she had of stuffing [things into her cheek pouches ; 

 and last but not least the way in which the hair on her fore-arms turned 

 upwards as in the monkeys and not downwards as in men. I looked well at the- 

 child, who seemed about six or seven years of age, nd found that she was an 

 ordinary human being, a little more hairy than usual : the flexibility of her 

 hands was merely a matter of training, as also was the habit she had of stuffing 

 her cheeks with grapes, &c. The direction of the hair on her arms was curious, 

 but not in itself sufficient to establish her claim as a link ; so we start from the 

 monkeys. The link between these and the insectivorous animals lies in the 

 Lemurs, which retaining the four hands and some of the anatomical peculiari- 

 ties of the monkeys, in form and face approximate the carnivorous animals. 

 I have here a living specimen of the mungoose lemur. 



" Then from these we go on to the bats. I am not sure that we are anatomically 

 correct in this link, but no other position could be assigned to the flying lemur 

 or Galeopithicus. 



"The Galeopitliicw volans, of which I have here a rough sketch, is eithei 

 a link between the lemurs and the bats or the bats and the insectivora. Natu- 

 ralists differ on this point. From certain structural peculiarities, I incline to 

 place them before the bats, especially as they are vegetivorous, and therefore 

 should lead on from the lemurs to the frugivorous bats, and not be placed 

 between the ins< ct-eating bats and the insectivora. The animal itself i'b some- 

 what like a lemur, but between its limbs it has a membrane exactly like that of 

 the flying squirrel, which I here show you, only that it has this membrane 

 continued round between the hind legs and including the tail as have seme 

 genera of bats ; and it is supposed from observations made of its flight that this 

 arrangement enables it to steer itself in its course from tree to tree. In the 

 numerous families of the Order Insectivora there are many curious links, but 

 I have not time to-night to go into them. Anatomically, we must carry on the 

 Insectivora into Carnivora, but talking merely external resemblances, we find 

 much more affinity with the Rodents. Mice and rats are reproduced in shrews : 

 the squirrels are externally like the tupaia. The porcupines have their counter- 

 parts in the hedgehegs, and the jerboas in the jumping shrews. A curious 

 instance of similarity is to be found in the squirrels and tupaia. This latter 

 animal is a tree-shrew with a long bushy tail, and when it was first discovered 

 it was considered to be a squirrel till dissection proved it to be an insectivore. 



