174 THE DESCENT OF MAN. 



would still retain through inheritance numerous small 

 points of resemblence with the other two. Here, then, 

 would occur the difficulty, at present insoluble, how much 

 weight we ought to assign in our classifications to strongly- 

 marked differences in some few points that is, to the 

 amount of modification undergone, and how much to close 

 resemblance in numerous unimportant points, as indicating 

 the lines of descent or genealogy. To attach much weight 

 to the few but strong differences is the most obvious and 

 perhaps the safest course, though it appears more correct 

 to pay great attention to the many small resemblances, as 

 giving a truly natural classification. 



In forming a judgment on this head with reference to 

 man, we must glance at the classification of the Simiadae. 

 This family is divided by almost all naturalists into the 

 Oatarrhine group, or Old World monkeys, all of which are 

 characterized (as their name expresses) by the peculiar 

 structure of their nostrils, and by having four premolars in 

 each jaw; and into the Platyrrhine group or New World 

 monkeys (including two very distinct sub-groups), all of 

 which are characterized by differently constructed nostrils 

 and by having six premolars in each jaw. Some other 

 small differences might be mentioned. Now man un- 

 questionably belongs in his dentition, in the structure 

 of his nostrils, and some other respects, to the Catarrhine or 

 Old World division; nor does he resemble the Platyrrhines 

 more closely than the Catarrhines in any characters, except- 

 ing in a few of not much importance and apparently of an 

 adaptive nature. It is therefore against all probability that 

 some New World species should have formerly varied and 

 produced a man-like creature, with all the distinctive char- 

 acters proper to the Old World division; losing at the same 

 time all its own distinctive characters. There can, conse- 

 quently, hardly be a doubt that man is an off-shoot from 

 the Old World Simian stem; and that under a genealogical 

 point of view he must be classed with the Oatarrhine 

 division. * 



* This is nearly the same classification as that provisionally 

 adopted by Mr. St. George Mivart ("Transact. Philosoph. Soc," 

 1867, p. 300), who, after separating the Lemuridse, divides the 

 remainder of the Primates into the Hominidae, the Simiadae which 

 answer to the Catarrhines, the Cebidae, and the Hapalidse these two 

 latter groups answering to the Platyrrhines. Mr. Mivart still abides 

 by the same view; see "Nature," 1871, p. 481. 



