INTRODUCTION. 



In the absence of palaeontological evidence the question of the 

 interrelationship amongst animals is based upon similarities of structure 

 in existing forms. In judging of these similarities the subjective 

 element may largely enter, in evidence of which we need but look 

 at the history of the classification of the Primates. 



Linnaeus placed Man, the Apes, Lemurs and Bats in the division 

 Primates. Blumenbach first placed Man in a special order, the Bimana, 

 including the Apes and Semi-Apes under Quadrumana, this classi- 

 fication being retained by Cuvier and others. Huxley (1863) showed 

 that all true Apes are as genuinely "Bimana" as Man, and gave 

 comparative anatomical proof that the differences between Man and 

 the higher Apes are less than between these and the lowest Apes. 

 Huxley therefore separated Primates into Anthropoidae (Man), Simiidae 

 (Apes), and Lemuridae (Semi-Apes). Haeckel (1866)^ did not think 

 that Man should be placed in a separate order. Zoologists to-day agree 

 in placing Man and Apes in one order, the Anthropoidea. 



The question as to the degree of relationship between the Anthro- 

 poidea is one upon which there is some disagreement. Haeckel- (1899) 

 has recently brought together all the evidence speaking for the descent 

 of man from Old World apes, whose recent ancestors belonged to the 

 tailless Anthropoids, whose older ancestors belonged to Cynopithecidae. 

 Years ago\ he pointed out that the African man-like apes, the Gorilla 

 and Chimpanzee, are black in colour, and " like their countrymen the 

 Negroes, have the head long from back to front (dolichocephalic). The 

 Asiatic man-apes are on the contrary mostly of a brown, or yellowish- 

 brown colour and have the head short from back to front (brachy- 

 cephalic), like their countrymen, the Malays and Mongols." A closer 



1 Haeckel (1879), The Evolution of Man, vol. ii. (New York, D. Appleton & Co.). 

 ^ Haeckel, " Ueber unsere gegenwartige Kenntniss vom Ursprung des Menscheu," 

 (Bonn, 1899). 



N. 1 



