MAN IN NATURE 209 



logy,_or that of psychology and pneumatology as 

 well, f This distinction is the more important, since 

 under the somewhat delusive term * biology it has 

 been customary to mix up all these considerations ; 

 while on the other hand those anatomists who regard 

 all the functions of organic beings as mechanical 

 and physical, do not scruple to employ this term 

 biology for their science, though on their hypothesis 

 there can be no such thing as life, and consequently 

 the use of the word by them must be either supersti 

 tious or hypocritical. 



/fi| Anatomically considered, man is an animal of the 

 class Mammalia. In that class, notwithstanding the 

 heroic efforts of some modern detractors from his 

 dignity to place him with the monkeys in the order 

 Primates, he undoubtedly belongs to a distinct crder. 

 I have elsewhere argued that if he were an extinct 

 animal, the study of the bones of his hand or of his 

 head would suffice to convince any competent palaeon 

 tologist that he represents a distinct order, as far 

 apart from the highest apes as they are from the car- 

 nivora. That he belongs to a distinct family no 

 anatomist denies, and the same unanimity of course 

 obtains as to his generic and specific distinctness. 

 On the other hand, no zoological systematist now/j 

 doubts that all the races of men are specifically iden-JJ 

 tical. Thus we have the anatomical position of man 

 firmly fixed in the system of nature, and he must be 

 content to acknowledge his kinship not only with the 



O 



