THE LAST STEPS IN THE GENEALOGY OF MAN. 673 



tbe first) in the line of the bettercbiiracterizecl monkeys. However, 

 serious objections are raised against tbat way of looking at it. Tbe 

 first is tbat of Broca. In 1870, when bis celebrated monograph on tbe 

 order of primates appeared, my lamented master (Broca) maintained 

 in nearly tbe same terms as Huxley tbat the lemurs are tbe fifth family 

 of tbe order of primates, but more separated from tbe other families 

 than any one of those is from one another. 



Jn 1877, after a communication before tbe Soeiete d' Anthropologic, be 

 changed bis opinion, and for tbe following reason : Haeckel based bis 

 bifurcate division of placental mammals on tbe existence of extended 

 or limited placenta and the absence or presence of a deciduous mem- 

 brane which detaches with the debris of tbe egg at the time of birth. 

 Among tbe mammals with difltuse and deciduous placenta are classed 

 the nngulata and cetacea. Tbe others are sub-divided in their turn 

 into four branches, in which the circumscribed placenta presents itself 

 under different aspects reducible to two, one an annular or zone-like 

 insertion, tbe other a disk or discoidal insertion. Tlie carnivora and 

 proboscidea are examples of the first mode of insertion. Man, the an- 

 thropoids, the ordinary monkeys, and the lemurs, — tbat is to say, all the 

 primates are in tbe second class. ]!^ow Broca bad shown to the society 

 the placenta of a lemur, tXie propithecns diadema, in which the placenta 

 was neither discoidal nor annular, but is diffuse, and which had no de- 

 cidua. The lemurs hence are separated violently from the other pri- 

 mates by a character of tbe first order. 



Vogt answered that we have as yet examined but four specimens of 

 lemurian placentas, and that this organ among them is neither diffuse 

 nor zonary, nor discoidal, but bell-shaped, a transition from the zonary 

 to tbe discoidal. Afterwards, without denying tbe importance of the 

 placenta as a basis of classification for tbe mammals, be showed that its 

 importance bad been exaggerated, tbat all the intermediate ones fall in 

 between the different forms, and that very difl'erent shapes may fre- 

 quently be observed in tbe same order. Vogt accepts however tbe 

 opinion of Broca, but it was on account of other considerations. Ac- 

 cording to him the lemurs are to be separated from tbe monkeys, and 

 consequently are not their ancestors. He remarked tbat the opposable 

 thumb has nothing absolute about it since it has been already observed 

 among certain marsupials, and likewise tbe nails, since the ienuirs have 

 claws on more or fewer fingers. That is true, but Vogt retains the 

 galeoi)itbeci among tbe lemurs, and they are tbe most imi)ortant feat- 

 nre in his argument. As to the contradictory })bysical characters 

 invoked by Vogt they are numerous and weighty. To enumerate: 

 — tbe lemurs have the two i)arts of the jaw indei)endent, but they are 

 always joined among the primates ; their low and slim jaw contrasts 

 with tbe high and heavy jaw of tbe monkeys. Tbe intermaxillary bone 

 persists throughout life among tlie lemurs but it is co ossified early among 

 the lecoguized primates. The oibits are opened behind or have but a 

 H. Mis. 22 i 13 



