CHAPTER VII 

 APES, MONKEYS, AND LEMURS continued 



THE LEMURS 

 Family 



The whole of the animals treated of in the four preceding chapters, as possess- 

 ing many characteristics in common, to which we have alluded in the course of our 

 description, are regarded by zoologists as collectively constituting one great group 

 of the order Primates. And since this group is also taken in zoological classification 

 to include man himself, it is spoken of as the Anthropoid or Human-like group ; 

 the individual members thereof being referred to as Anthropoids. 



We now come to another and lower group of animals, which, while sufficiently 

 nearly allied to the above to be included in the order Primates, are so different as 

 to be entitled to stand as a group of equivalent rank. These animals are primarily 

 represented by the lemurs. The group also includes two other creatures which 

 cannot be classed in the same family as the lemurs, and of which we shall treat 

 in the succeeding chapter. As it is desirable to have a common name for all the 

 members of this group, and as it would be incorrect to allude to the whole of them 

 as lemurs, the term L,emur-like creatures, or, shortly, Lemuroids, has been pro- 

 posed, and will be found convenient. 



Although these Lemuroids may always be distinguished at a glance from the 

 apes and monkeys by their foxy, expressionless faces, it is difficult to point out 

 the important structural features by which they differ from the former without 

 entering into anatomical details unsuited to a popular work like the present. The 

 reader must, therefore, take it on trust that there are such important differences 

 between the Anthropoids and the Lemuroids. In spite, however, of these differ- 

 ences, there are such resemblances between the two groups as to suggest that the 

 lemurs and their allies are not far removed from the group from which we may 

 presume (if the doctrine of evolution be the true key to the book of nature) the 

 -apes and monkeys to have originated. 



That the lemurs are much lower in the zoological scale than the 

 Characteristics , , , , , . , ,. ., . , . 



apes and monkeys is shown by the simpler structure or their brains, 



which have far fewer foldings on their surface than is the case with those of the 

 latter ; the amount of such foldings, as giving a larger extent of superficial surface, 

 being indicative of the mental powers of the owners of the brains. 



A peculiar feature of all the lemurs and their allies is to be found in the cir- 

 cumstance that the second toe of the foot (corresponding to the index finger of the 



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