QUADRUMANA. 9 
“Tam at length enabled to solve the important question 
as to the existence of the highest order of Mammalia 
(Quadrumana,) in those ancient times to which these fossils 
belong; a question which has, as yet, been unanswered, or 
to which most philosophers have replied in the negative. 
It is certain that this order was then in existence; and the 
first animal of the class recovered is of gigantic size; a 
character belonging to the organization of the period. It 
considerably exceeds the largest individuals of the Orang 
Outang or Chimpanzee yet seen; from which, also, as 
well as from the Gibbons, or long-armed apes (//y/obates), 
it is generically distinct. As it also differs from the exist- 
ing Monkeys of this continent (South America), I would 
place it for the present in a genus of its own, for which | 
propose the name of Protopithecus.” 
In letters communicated to the Academy of Sciences, 
Dr. Lund states that the large fossil Brazilian Monkey 
belongs to the Platyrrhine or New World group of Qua- 
drumana, all the species of which have three premolars on 
each side of the upper and lower Jaws, and that it surpassed 
any known Cebus or Mycetes in size, since it must have 
been four feet in height. ' 
These dimensions, however, do not exceed those of the 
full grown Chimpanzees and Orangs; but it is interesting 
to find that the fossil Semnopithecus of India, and the 
fossil Protopithecus, or Capuchin Monkey of Brazil, are, 
like the associated lower organized extinct Mammalia, of 
gigantic size, as compared with the nearest existing ana- 
logues of the same localities. It is not less interesting to 
find that the representatives of the Quadrumanous order 
in latitudes, the climate of which is now unfit for the ex- 
istence of apes and monkeys in a state of nature, were of 
smaller size than their own nearest analogues, which seems 
to indicate that although the climate was warmer than at 
