THE DESCENT OF THE PRIMATES 19 



monkey of the Eocene period, of which up to 

 now we possess only one imperfect skull, and of 

 which no human eye will ever see an embryo ! 

 And still, if you consider the wh jle of the rea- 

 soning as it has here been given, you will agree 

 that it would be difficult to admit that these 

 intricate peculiarities which Tarsius shares with 

 the monkeys, to the exclusion of all other known 

 mammals, should not also have been possessed 

 by a fossil genus which resembles Tarsius so 

 very closely, and which by its dentition ap- 

 proaches closer yet to man and the anthropoid 

 apes. 



The moment you admit, as I expect you will 

 be willing to do, that Anaptomorphus has not 

 considerably differed from Tarsius with respect 

 to its embryology, then the order of the Pri- 

 mates, between which and that of the Lemurs 

 we have been accumulating anatomical and em- 

 bryological divergence, also becomes severed from 

 it in geological time. If as early as the lower 

 Eocene period, animals have existed that were 

 possessed of those peculiarities by which the 

 Primates are eminently distinguished (and it 

 should be well understood that of late true 

 monkeys have also been discovered in the older 

 Tertiary of South America), then it would be 



