432 INTEODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 



these animals a superior degree of intelligence and docility. 

 In them the philosopher will find the nearest approach to 

 man, both in mental characteristics and bodily configuration, 

 which the lower animals are permitted to attain; yet vast 

 and impassable is the barrier of separation. 



The Monkeys, so far as they are known at the present time, 

 contain in all 170 species, forming the one-ninth of all 

 mammalia. Their fossil remains have been found in France, 

 in India, and in South America. They have also occurred 

 in England; so that there is no doubt that when the climate 

 was suitable for the Crocodiles and Turtles, whose remains 

 occur in the London clay, and for the growth of the cocoa- 

 nuts and spices found in the Isle of Sheppy, it was suffi- 

 ciently warm for these foui'-handed mammalia* to enjoy 

 their arboreal life among the branches. 



To the classical scholar the present order is deserving of 

 notice, as having given origin to the ancient fiction of satyrs, 

 pygmies, and other supposed tribes of human monstei's. 



Oedeb BIMANA.— man. 



" Two of far nobler shape, erect and tall, 

 Godliktt erect, with native honour clad, • 



In naked majesty seem'd lords of all ; 

 And worthy seem'd; for in their looks divine 

 The image of their glorious Maker shone." 



Paradise Lost. 



Milton, in these lines, has described with the truthfulness of 

 real poetry one of the most striking external characteristics 

 of man — his erect gait. The zoologist points to the human 

 hand as presenting another mark of distinction. In man only 

 can the thumb be applied with such precision and power to 

 each of the fingers as to seize the most minute objects. So 

 much superior is it to the anterior extremity in Monkeys, 

 that Sir Charles Bell remarks, — "We ought to define the 

 hand as belonging exclusively to Man."f Of all animals, the 

 term Bimana, or two handed, is applicable to Man alone. He 



* Owen's Fossil ]\Iammalia, p. 1. 

 t Bridgewater Treatise, p 18. 



