344 MAMMALIA : PRIMATES. LIV. 



FAMILY CCIII. HOMINID^E. (THE MEN.) 



The most prominent characters of the Hominidce are " derived 

 from the distribution of hair on the body, which is subject to wide 

 modification in the different races, from the fact that locomotion is 

 easiest in the erect posture, owing to the relative shortness of the 

 arms ; from the greater length and mobility of the thumb and the 

 comparative immobility of the great toe. Well-marked skeletal 

 peculiarities are the possession of 12 rib-bearing vertebrse, the 

 rounded skull in which the muscular ridges are little prominent, 

 and the great capacity of the cranium. This is, of course, in 

 adaptation to the relatively enormous development of the cerebral 

 hemispheres, which much exceed in bulk those of other primates 

 and to which man owes his specific name." It is apparent that dif- 

 ferent races have arrived at different stages of evolution in the 

 development of the brain, " as well as in the employment of articu- 

 late speech, to which man owes the power of transmitting to others 

 the results of his experience and his position as the ' highest ani- 

 mal/ " (R. Ramsay Wright.) As usually understood, this family 

 contains but a single species, cosmopolitan, and highly variable. 



607. HOMO Linnaeus. (Lat., man.) 



1145. H. sapiens L. MAN. This species is now split up into 

 many sub-species or races, the native man of this continent, or 

 "American Indian," being var. americanus L. Other races now 

 naturalized in America are the Caucasian race, var. europaeus L., 

 the Mongolian race, var. asiaticus L., and the Negro race, var. afer 

 L. The first of these is an immigrant from Europe, the second 

 from Asia, and the third was brought hither from Africa by repre- 

 sentatives of var. europceus to be used as slaves. The wild man, or 

 typical var. sapiens, as described by Linnaeus (" Homo diurnus : 

 varians cultura, loco, tetrapus, mutus, hirsutus "), seems to be now 

 extinct. (Lat., knowing.) (Eu.) 



" Sic vivimus ut immortales et morimur ut mortales." (Seneca.) 



