30 NATURAL HISTORY. 



hand as belonging exclusively to man." The chief ob- 

 ject in the construction of the so-called hands of this 

 tribe is to enable them to grasp the limbs of trees in 

 climbing, in which they are greatly skilled. They are 

 very imitative beings ; but, even when they are subject- 

 ed to long training, they can do but a few of the many 

 things that can be done by the hands of man. On the 

 whole, we may say that they have four members which 

 partake in part of the character of a hand, and in part 

 of that of a foot. It is for this reason that I have adopt- 

 ed the name of Pedimana, foot-handed. There is an- 

 other reason for this in the fact stated by Dr. Carpenter, 

 that one large division of this tribe have this resemblance 

 to hands in only one pair of the extremities, and that the 

 hinder pair. It is for this reason that he suggested the 

 name which I have adopted, giving it less breadth of 

 meaning, however, than I do. The suggestion is so good 

 a one, that I wonder that he did not adopt it in his clas- 

 sification.* 



* I may be considered by some as presumptuous in thus changing 

 a name which has so long been retained in zoological classifications 

 that it has almost acquired a right to its place by possession. But 

 if the suggestion of Dr. Carpenter be a correct one, following it out 

 fully can not only do no harm, but will certainly do good by placing 

 the subject in its true light. If Sir Charles Bell is right in saying 

 that no animal but man has truly a hand, and if the estimate which, 

 in Chapter II., I have put upon this instrument, as fitly corresponding 

 with man's mental capabilities, be correct, it is surely going very wide of 

 the truth to call the hand-feet of the ape and monkey tribe real hands. 



In this connection, I will remark on another change that I have 

 made in the commonly received classification. Ordinarily, man is con- 

 sidered as one of the orders of the sub-class Unguiculata. But I have 

 put him ( 24) in a sub-class by himself, thus not only separating him 

 more distinctly from other animals, as I think truth requires, but se- 

 curing in other respects a more natural classification of the whole class 

 of Mammalia. 



In some classifications man is placed in even nearer relations to 

 other animals than in the one ordinarily received. Thus, in that re- 

 tained up to the present time in the British Museum, the first order of 

 the class Mammalia is Primates, including man, apes, monkeys, bab- 



