129 
Anatomy. — “On the external nose of Primates’. By G P. Frets. 
(Communicated by Prof. Dr. L. Bork). 
The distinction of monkeys into Platyrrhini and Catarrhini is 
of ancient date and generally adopted. It seems to be little known 
by whom this distinction has first been made, in the systematical 
works at least the name is not mentioned. The object of the present 
communication is to premise the description of this classification, as 
it has been given by Burron and E. Grorrroy Sr. Hinatre and 
amended by Is. Grorrroy Sr. Hinaire, and to test by this formular- 
ization the result of an investigation I have made. 
About 1765 Burron was the first to use the external nose as a 
systematic characteristic for the classification of monkeys, which 
coincides with their geographical dispersion over the two continents '). 
He writes:®) ‘les singes de Vancien continent ont la cloison des 
narines étroite, et ces mêmes narines sont ouvertes au-dessous du 
nez comme celles de homme” and “les singes du nouveau monde 
ont tous la cloison des narines fort épaisse, les narines ouvertes sur 
les cÔtés du nez et non pas en dessous.” 
In 1812 Er. Grorrroy Sr. Hivaire®) divides the monkeys in his 
Tableau des Quadrumanes into catarrhinins, catharrini or monkeys 
of the Old World and platyrrhinins, plathyrrhini or American monkeys. 
He borrows Burron’s description and adds to it, that with catarrhine 
monkeys the nose-bones dissolve before the shedding of the teeth 
(p. 86) whilst with platyrrhines the suture between these bones 
disappears only at « later age. Later French authors sometimes 
bring out still more distinctly that the characteristic has been derived 
from the external nose. So DesMAREST *) writes : ““les singes catarrhinins 
ou singes de l'ancien monde (ont les) narines rapprochees Pune de 
l'autre” and “les singes platyrrhinins ou singes du nouveau continent 
(ont les) narines écartées Pune de l'autre”. In the same way G. Cevinr 
(ed. 1829 I p. 99) F. Cuvier ®”), pe Buainvitin ®), P. Guwats’), Brocac®). 
1) Compare Is. G. St. HrrArre, Mém. du Muséum, T. 17, p. 129; 1828. 
2) BUFFON, Oeuvres completes; ed. 1837 IV, 2, p. 687, 1, 
3) E. G. Sr. Hrraire, Annales du Muséum, T. 19, 1812. 
4) DESMAREST, Mammologie 1, Partie, p. 30, Paris. 
5) G. Sr. Hinarre et F. Cuvier, Hist. Nat. des Mammiféres, T. 1, Paris 1824. 
6) DE BLAINVILLE, Ostéographie des Mammiferes, T. 1, p. 6, Paris 1839—64, 
7) P. Gervais, Hist. nat. des Mammifères, p. 8 and p. 113, Paris 1854. 
8) Brocac, L’Ordre des Primates, Mém. d’Anthropologie, T. Ill, p. 11, 1877, 
