444 THE EVOLUTION OF MAN. 



the Ape order. From the facts exliibited by Comparative 

 Ajiatomy, we can undoubtedly form in imagination an 

 approximate image of the structure of our ancestors during 

 the older Tertiary Period ; we may fill out the details as we 

 will, yet this image will be a genuine Ape, and a true 

 Catarhine. For Man has all the physical characters dis- 

 tinguishing the Catyrhina from the Platyrhina. Accord- 

 ingly, in the mammalian pedigree, we must derive the 

 human race directly from the Catarhine group, and refer 

 the origin of Man to the Old World For the entire group 

 of the Catarhine Apes has, as yet, been confined to the Old 

 World, just as the group of the Platyrhine Apes has been 

 limited to the New. Only the earliest root-form, that from 

 which both groups sprang, was common to them; probably 

 it originated from the Semi-apes of the Old World. 



Therefore, although it is thus indubitably established as 

 the result of our objective scientific inv^uiry, that the human 

 race is directly descended from the Apes of the Old World, 

 yet we will once more state emphatically that this signifi- 

 cant fact is not of as great importance to the main question 

 of the origin of Man, as is generally supposed. For, even 

 if we entirely ignore the fact or thrust it aside, this will 

 not affect all that the zoological facts of Comparative 

 Anatomy and the history of development have taught us 

 concerning the placental character of Man. These clearly 

 prove the common descent of Man and the other Mammals. 

 It is evident also, that the main question cannot be in the 

 least evaded or set aside by the statement : " Man is, indeed, 

 a Mammal; but he branched off from the others quite at 

 the root of the class, and has no nearer relationship with 

 any other extant Mammal." At all events, the relationship 



