124 THE RELATIONS OF MAN 



is no existing link between Man and the Gorilla, but do 

 not forget that there is a no less sharp line of demarca- 

 tion, a no less complete absence of any transitional form, 

 between the Gorilla and the Orang, or the Orang and the 

 Gibbon. I say, not less sharp, though it is somewhat nar- 

 rower. The structural differences between Man and the 

 Man-like apes certainly justify our regarding him as con- 

 stituting a family apart from them ; though, inasmuch as 

 he differs less from them than they do from other families 

 of the same order, there can be no justification for placing 

 him in a distinct order. 



And thus the sagacious foresight of the great lawgiver 

 of systematic zoology, Linnaeus, becomes justified, and a 

 century of anatomical research brings us back to his con- 

 clusion, that man is a member of the same order (for -which 

 the Linnsean term PRIMATES ought to be retained) as the 

 Apes and Lemurs. This order is now divisible into seven 

 families, of about equal systematic value : the first, the 

 ANTHKOPINI, contains Man alone ; the second, the CA- 

 TARHINI, embraces the old world apes ; the third, the 

 PLATYRHINI, all new world apes, except the Marmosets ; 

 the fourth, the ARCTOPITHECINI, contains the Marmosets ; 

 the fifth, the LEMURINI, the Lemurs from which Chei- 

 romys should probably be excluded to form a sixth dis- 

 tinct family, the CHEIROMYINI ; while the seventh, the 

 GALEOPiTHEcmi, contains only the flying Lemur Galeo- 

 pithecus, a strange form which almost touches on the 

 Bats, as the Cheiromys puts on a Rodent clothing, and 

 the Lemurs simulate Insectivora. 



Perhaps no order of mammals presents us with so ex- 

 traordinary a series of gradations as this leading us in- 

 sensibly from the crown and summit of the animal crea- 

 tion down to creatures, from which there is but a step, as 

 it seems, to the lowest, smallest, and least intelligent o 



