CHAPTEE VII. 



APES, MONKEYS, AND LEMURS continued. 



THE LEMURS. 

 Family 



THE whole of the animals treated of in the four preceding chapters, as possessing 

 many characters in common, to which we have alluded in the course of our descrip- 

 tion, are regarded by zoologists as collectively constituting one great group of the 

 order Primates. And since this group is also taken in zoological classification to 

 include man himself, it is spoken of as the Anthropoid or Human-like group ; the 

 individual members thereof being referred to as Anthropoids. 



We now come to another and lower group of animals, which, while sufficiently 

 nearly allied to the above to be included in the order Primates, are so different as 

 to be entitled to stand as a group of equivalent rank. These animals are primarily 

 represented by the lemurs. The group also includes two other creatures which 

 cannot be classed in the same family as the lemurs, and of which we shall treat 

 in the succeeding chapter. As it is desirable to have a common name for all 

 the members of this group, and as it would be incorrect to allude to the whole 

 of them as lemurs, the term Lemur-like creatures, or, shortly, Lemuroids, has been 

 proposed, and will be found convenient. 



Although these Lemuroids may always be distinguished at a glance from 

 the apes and monkeys by their foxy, expressionless faces, it is difficult to point 

 out the important structural features by which they differ from the former without 

 entering into anatomical details unsuited to a popular work like the present. The 

 reader must, therefore, take it on trust that there are such important differences 

 between the Anthropoids and the Lemuroids. In spite, however, of these differ- 

 ences, there are such resemblances between the two groups as to suggest that the 

 lemurs and their allies are not far removed from the group from which we may 

 presume (if the doctrine of evolution be the true key to the book of nature) the 

 apes and monkeys to have originated. 



That the lemurs are much lower in the zoological scale than the 

 Characteristics. . . 



apes and monkeys is shown by the simpler structure or their brains, 



which have far fewer foldings on their surface than is the case with those of the 

 latter ; the amount of such foldings, as giving a larger extent of superficial surface, 

 being indicative of the mental powers of the owners of the brains. 



A peculiar feature of all the lemurs and their allies is to be found in the 

 circumstance that the second toe of the foot (corresponding to the index finger of 

 the hand) is always furnished with a sharp claw. All lemurs ha^ve a well-developed 



