Mr. G. T. Burnett on Apes and their Allies, 301 



malce the selection, not only because they long have been, and 

 still may be considered the primates of the brute creation, but 

 also as they afford a good praxis on methodical arrangement. 



It may chance, that by some I shall be blamed for intro- 

 ducing so many, and by others for not adopting all, the modern 

 improvements (innovations?) in nomenclature: but as far as 

 they involve no fundamental error, I have preferred old names, 

 because they are familiar ; although their definitions occasion- 

 ally require to be modified. Hence I have introduced new 

 terms reluctantly, and only when the current ones were incon- 

 venient and incorrect; nevertheless when so, I have not 

 scrupled to propose their abolition, however high the authority 

 by which they have been imposed. Utility, rather than no- 

 velty on the one hand, or subserviency on the other, having 

 been the object aimed at in the present sketch, it will T trust 

 plead my apology for such alterations as have been needfully, 

 not wilfully, introduced. 



I have the honour to remain, 



Yours obediently, 



Gilbert T. Burnett. 



Sept 1st, 1828. 



Illustrations of the Manupeda, or Apes and their Allies; 

 being the arrangement of the Quadrumana or Anthropo- 

 morphous Beasts indicated in Outline. 



Animals of the ape or monkey type approach more nearly to 

 the human structure, than do any others of the brute creation ; 

 hence, perhaps, the name monkey, monkin, manikin, quasi 

 dicatf somewhat like or akin to man ; a term as familiar and 

 equally expressive with the more classical anthropomorpha. 

 Their gestures, also, seem often to have been thought a carica- 

 ture or mockery of human ways, hence are they called apes. 



These beasts and their natural allies (the Pitheci and Cer- 

 copitheci of the Greeks, the Simiae of the Latins, the Monichi 

 of the barbarous ages) form a very natural association. Their 

 approach to the human shape, the original bond of union, has 

 been much strengthened by the notice of other common cha- 



OCT.— DEC. 1828. Y 



