Chap. VI.] AFFINITIES AND GENEALOGY. 183 



Orders of the Quadrumana, Carnivora, etc. Recently 

 many of our best naturalists have I'ecurred to the view 

 first propounded by Linnseus, so remarkable for his sa- 

 gacity, and have placed man in the same Order with the 

 Quadrumana, under the title of the Primates. The justice 

 of this conclusion will be admitted if, in the first place, 

 we bear in mind the remarks just made on the com])ara- 

 tively small importance for classification of the great de- 

 veloj)ment of the brain in man; bearing, also, in mind 

 that the strongly-marked differences between the skiills of 

 man and the Quadrumana (lately insisted upon by Bi- 

 schoff, Aeby, and others) apparently follow from their dif- 

 ferently-developed brains. In the second jalace, we must 

 remember that nearly all the other and more important 

 difierences between man and the Quadrumana are mani- 

 festly adaptive in their nature, and relate chiefly to the 

 erect position of man ; such as the structure of his hand, 

 foot, and pelvis, the curvature of his spine, and the po- 

 sition of his head. The fiimily of seals oflers a good il- 

 histration of the small importance of adaptive characters 

 for classification. These animals differ from all other Car- 

 nivora in the form of their bodies and in the structure of 

 their limbs, far more than does man from the higher apes ; 

 yf' .n every system, from tliat of Cuvier to the most re- 

 cent one by Mr. Flower,* seals are ranked as a mere family 

 in the Order of the Carnivora. If man had not been his 

 own classifier, he would never have thought of founding a 

 separate order for his own reception. 



It would be beyond my limits, and quite beyond my 

 knowledge, even to name the innumerable points of struct- 

 ure in which man agrees with the other Primates. Our 

 great anatomist and philosopher. Prof. Huxley, has fully 

 discussed this subject,^ and has come to the conclusion 



4 'Proc. Zoolog. Soc' 1809, p. 4. 



* ' Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature,' 18tJ8, p. TO, et pa.'ishn. 



