BlMAXA.- 



-M AM MALTA. 



-BlMAXA. 



over nearly the same ground on the same principle of 

 careful and conscientious investigation, in order, if pos- 

 sible, to obtain results which shall either confirm the 

 views advanced by him, or show in what manner some 

 fallacy may have crept into his generalizations. There 

 can be no doubt that although this classification may 

 not eventually be adopted as a whole, it must exercise 

 an important influence on the views of succeeding 



zoologists ; and we have therefore dwelt upon it here at 

 considerable length, feeling that, although the require- 

 ments of a popular scientific work compel us to follow 

 as closely as possible those opinions which are most 

 generally entertained, the reader might fairly charge us 

 with neglect if we omitted to place before him some 

 account of a system which has justly acquired so much 

 celebritv. 



OKDER L 13IMAXA. 



ALTHOUGH it cannot be denied that man, in his 

 physical relations, is a member of the zoological series, 

 and, as such, must occupy a place in our classification, 

 it is not our intention, nor indeed is it compatible with 

 the general scope of the present work, to enter at any 

 length upon the consideration of the natural history of 

 the human race. The study of this subject is far from 

 being a purely zoological investigation. It includes a 

 careful examination of the political history of mankind, 

 from the earliest reliable records down to our own days, 

 in order that the student may acquire some notion of 

 the migrations performed by different races or varieties 

 of men, and the consequent displacements and inter- 

 mixtures that have taken place. The moral and intel- 

 lectual qualities of the various races have also to be 

 taken into consideration ; and, of late years especially, 

 the comparison of different languages, both as regards 

 their verbal and grammatical accordance and diver- 

 sity, has justly been regarded as affording a most 

 valuable clue to guide the investigator in the laby- 

 rinth of tribes and nations. It is evident that a 

 subject embracing such various investigations, and 

 entering into the domain of zoology only by its physical 

 aspect, cannot, with any propriety, be considered merely 

 as a branch of zoological inquiry ; and of late years 

 the study of the natural history of man has been 

 universally admitted to the rank of a distinct science, 

 under the name of ETHNOLOGY, or the science of races. 

 If the reader will apply to himself the aphorism 

 " Nosce te ipsum," the only character which Linnaeus 

 deigns to give of his Homo sapiens, although in a some- 

 what different sense from that in which it was intended 

 by the Grecian sage, its author he will find that he is 

 in all points of structure a genuine and undoubted 

 mammal ; and the comparison of his organization with 

 that of one of the higher apes, especially the chim- 

 panzee, will leave him in little doubt as to the near 

 approach which these animals make in some respects 

 to the human race. This resemblance is so close in 

 many particulars of structure, that we cannot coincide 

 in opinion with those writers who hold that Man should 

 on no account be admitted into the zoological series, 

 an opinion founded principally upon the consideration of 

 his intellectual faculties and moral qualities ; nor can we 

 even assent to Professor Owen's view, that the human 

 race, regarded in its physical aspect, is so distinct in its 

 characters from all other mammals, as to deserve to 

 form a subclass by itself; but we are still further at 

 variance with those writers who, like some modern 

 French zoologists, have reverted to the Linnaeun 

 VOL. I. 



| method, in so far as to revive the order of Primates for 

 the reception of man and the monkeys an intimate 

 collocation of the human species with the lower ani- 

 mals which is exceedingly congenial to the views of 

 those who hold the doctrine of the progressive develop- 

 ment of species, or the gradual production of one 

 species from another, by virtue of a law of development 

 pejvading all nature. 



Independently of purely intellectual considerations, 

 and of the comparative bulk of the brain wliich is 

 connected therewith, and which of itself, with its con- 

 j comitant effects upon the size of the skull and pro- 

 portionately smaller development of the facial bones, 

 would suffice to distinguish Man, even zoologically, from 

 the rest of the Mammalia we have to remark the per- 

 fect organization of every human being for an upright 

 position, involving, as this does, great changes in all 

 parts of the body. The foot is constructed so that the 

 whole sole may be applied to the ground, forming with 

 its arched instep a support at once firm and elastic. 

 The bones of the shank and ankle are so arranged as 

 to confer great firmness and a certain amount of mobility 

 upon the foot ; the knee is large and powerful, the 

 thigh long and very muscular, and the pelvis large, 

 j strong, and changed in its position so as to allow the 

 whole lower limb to be brought under the centre of 

 gravity of the body. In all these respects we find a 

 great difference between man and the apes, which, 

 being adapted for passing their existence in trees, have 

 the hinder limbs far shorter than in the human subject, 

 the position of the pelvis different, and the articulations 

 of the legs so arranged that the palms of their posterior 

 hands are more or less turned inwards, or towards 

 each other ; hence, when an ape walks upright, he is 

 rarely able to apply the whole sole of the foot to the 

 ground, but waddles along upon the sides of his feet 

 in an awkward and uncertain fashion, very different 

 from the firm, elastic tread of man. As we advance 

 upwards in our examination of the human body, we 

 find the spinal column beautifully curved to adjust 

 it to the upright position, and the skull supported 

 nearly in equilibrium upon the first vertebra of the neck ; 

 ' the occipital condyles, or articulating processes, being 

 j placed almost exactly under the centre of gravity of 

 ' the whole head. Thus, the maintenance of an upright 

 i position is facilitated in the human subject by every 

 conceivable means, and the object of this modification 

 is evidently to leave him at liberty to make full use of 

 the beautiful and delicate mechanism wliich constitutes 

 i the hand of man. The monkeys, indeed, are all endowed 



