HUMAN RESEMBLANCES TO LOWER LIFE. 3 



the chief points involved in such a study. Just as the comparative 

 psychologist can point to mental traits which no one denies are 

 common to man and lower animals, so the anatomist can demonstrate 

 a like connection between the bodily belongings of humanity and 

 lower tribes of living beings. Resemblances in mind are, in truth, 

 paralleled by likenesses in body between the human and lower estates, 

 which are even more convincing in their demonstration of our natural 

 kinships than the traits of mental life. 



One of the earliest fruits of the labours of Cuvier consisted in 

 the demonstration of the fact, that, viewed by the science of his day, 

 no animal had a type or plan of body peculiar to itself, but, on the 

 other hand, presented a striking similarity in its general structure to 

 a greater or less number of other animal forms. There might be 

 no actual likeness perceptible between two animals, or two groups, or 

 there might exist differences apparently so great and so palpable that 

 their disagreement in nature could be readily prophesied ; and yet, it 

 could be shown, as Cuvier demonstrated, that underlying the obvious 

 dissimilarity of outward details, there might be found a more obvious 

 and more striking community and likeness of type. Now, that which 

 Cuvier demonstrated at the beginning of the present century, still 

 remains a sure article of zoological faith. That is to say, we are 

 aware that no animal has a type or build of body peculiar to itself. 

 Any animal we care to select from the varied array of the children of 

 life must fall into one or other of certain broad groups or types, 

 whereof Cuvier laid for us the solid outlines and foundations. It is 

 true that naturalists may not agree concerning the exact number or 

 constitution of their " types " of animals ; and it is likewise correct 

 to affirm that the limits of these " types " have been frequently 

 changed, and are even now altered and revised, like the boundaries 

 of parishes and electoral districts, to suit the exigencies of increasing 

 wisdom. But Cuvier's main principle stands practically where it did 

 at the beginning of our century, and certain of his original " types " 

 represent, with comparatively little change, the existing and received 

 constitution of the animal world, as denned by the zoological science 

 of to-day. It is a striking enough fact, that the apparently endless 

 variety of form we behold in a great museum of zoology should be 

 capable of being arranged in a certain, and by no means large, 

 number of "types." Yet that such is the case is readily enough 

 proved ; and it will be found that the appreciation of this wholesome 

 zoological truth renders the position of humanity in the animal series 

 a matter of very clear and unmistakable definition. 



A shrimp and a butterfly are animals, which, in respect of the 

 dissimilarities in their appearance, habits, and presumably in struc- 

 ture as well, present us with two types, apparently as diverse in 

 nature as could well be selected from the zoological series. The 



B 2 



