DESULTORY SKETCHES IN NATURAL HISTORY. 49 



cuously exhibits — even these have assuredly far less comprehensive 

 influence on the entire organism, than the analogous modifications 

 which the Seals, among the Carnivora (to select one of a multitude 

 of instances), present in reference to their particular sphere of action ; 

 and we are indisposed to concede that equivalent groups are ever 

 simple modifications of each other, a circumstance which implies 

 their non-distinctness, or unity as a special higher group, that can- 

 not be dismembered upon such a principle, to whatever extent it 

 may admit of sub-divisio7i. Conformably, then, with these premises, 

 we hold the zoological station of INIan to be as follows : after ad- 

 mitting him, as all must necessarily agree to do, into the kingdom 

 and sub-kingdom Ammalia Vertebraia, and class and sub-class 

 Mammalia Vivipara or Placenlalia, we conceive it necessary (omit- 

 ting two succeeding gradations in the descending scale, as requiring 

 a page or two of explanation) to include him among the Cheiropoda 

 — or Bimana and Quadrumajiaj Cuv. united — then among the first 

 of three divisions of the Cheiropoda indicated by M. Geoffroy, viz. 

 the Catarrhina, Plati/rrhina, and Strepsirrhina ; and, finally, in 

 the first of three sub-divisions of the Catarrhina^ consisting only of 

 Man and the Apes, where we deem the genus Homo to be of equal 

 systematic value with the three other genera or sub-genera (of the 

 Chimpanzee, Ourangs, and Gibbons) collectively. Indeed, it may 

 fairly be interrogated where, throughout the sy sterna natures j does 

 another instance occur of any genera so nearly allied, in total con- 

 formation, as Man is to the Chimpanzee and Ourangs, which genera 

 are placed by modern physiologists in distinct orders ?* 



• It is gratuitous to suppose that by these remarks, which may be re- 

 solved into a simple statement of facts, we seek to degrade the human race 

 intellectually, as some very sensitive readers may be apt to imagine : all 

 that we have endeavoured to shew is, that, as concerns the zoological system, 

 which reposes on physical structure only, and the consequent physiological 

 relations of different species of beings, the human subject presents a mere 

 modification of the same particular minor sub-type, as that upon which the 

 Apes only are besides organized ; the latter presenting the more ordinary or 

 normal developments proper to the major group Cheiropoda, from which Man 

 alone remarkably deviates, in consequence of a general adaptation to very 

 peculiar habits and requirements, just as, in a less degree, the Giraffe differs 

 from the rest of the Deer group, and from all the other homed Ruminants, 

 in obvious reference to less anomalous peculiar habits. It being ordained, in 

 brief, that a creature of flesh and blood should fulfil man's mundane destiny, 

 such a creature was accordingly produced by modifying the particular model 

 of construction of the Vertebraia generally, and of the Apes among the Pla- 

 cental Mammalia especially ; wherefore, we contend that, as Man is admitted 

 among the Vertebraia in the system of zoological arrangement, so also is it 

 VOL. X., NO. XXVIII, 7 



