ZOOLOGICAL SKETCHES. 



CHAPTER I. 



OUR FOUR-HANDED RELATIVES. 



OUR nearest relatives in the large family of the animal 

 kingdom are undoubtedly the frugivorous four-handers, 

 with some of their nocturnal congeners, but it would be 

 difficult to classify the Quadrumana after the degree of 

 that relationship : no naturalist could name the most 

 man-like ape. It is a reticulated, rather than a graduated 

 system of affinity, as Carl Vogt expresses it : the type 

 of the human form is a centre from which the connect- 

 ing lines diverge in various directions. To every sup- 

 posed characteristic of our physical structure some genus 

 or other of the multiform family has been found to ex- 

 hibit a parallel ; only the combination of these attributes 

 distinguishes man from all monkeys. 



The Latin word simia is derived from simus (flat- 

 nosed), and JElian considered the prominence of the 



human nose as a prerogative of our species; but Sir 



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