402 HlSTOHY OF 



into tbe waters, to live among the mute tenants of that element. 

 We now come to a numerous tribe, that leaving the brute crea- 

 tion, seem to make approaches even to humanity ; that bear an 

 awkward resemblance of the human form, and discover some 

 faint efforts at intellectual sagacit)'. 



the gradations are regular and easy. A remarkable circumstance connected 

 uith the developement of this faculty, or perhaps we should rather sav, 

 with its gradual extinction, consists in the fact that it is only in young ani. 

 mals which have not yet attained their full growth, that it is capable of being' 

 brought into play ; the older individuals, even of the most tractable races, 

 entirely losing the gaiety, and with it the docility, of their youth, and be- 

 coming at length as stupid and as savage as the most barbarous of the tribe. 



The monkeys of the Old and of the New World differ from each other in 

 several remarkable points, some of which are universally characteristic of all 

 the species of each, whUe others, although affording good and tangible 

 means of discrimination, are but partially applicable. Thus the nostrils of 

 all the species inhabiting the Old World are anterior, like those of man, and 

 divided only by a narrow septum. In those of the New World, on the con. 

 trary, they are invariably separated by a broad division, and consequently 

 occupy a position more or less lateral. In the former again the molar teeth 

 are uniformly five in number, crouiied with obtuse and flattened tubercles ; 

 while in the latter they are either six in number, or in the few anomalous 

 cases in wliich they are limited to five, and which are peculiar to a groupe 

 that ought to occupy an intermediate station between the monkeys and the 

 Insect-eating Carnivora, their crowns are surmounted by sharp and some- 

 what elevated points. The tails of all the American monkeys are of great 

 length, but they differ more or less from each other in the power of sus. 

 pending themselves by means of that organ, a faculty which is nevertheless 

 common to the greater number of them, and of which those of the Old 

 World are entirely destitute. On the other hand the American species never 

 exhibit any traces of the callosities or of the cheek-pouches, wliich are so 

 common among the Asiatic and African races. 



Each of these grand divisions has been subdivided into several minor 

 groups or genera ; but zoologists have liitherto been by no means unani. 

 mous with respect to the principles on which this subdivison ought to be 

 effected. The arrangement which appears to be most generally adopted at 

 the present day is that of M. Cuvier and M. Geofi'roy-Saint-Hilaire, 

 which is essentially foiuided on the application of a:i imaginary rule, 

 first employed by Camper for ascertaining the degree of intelligence, and 

 consequently of ideal beatity, expressed by the hu'nan face in its various 

 gradations of elevation or debasement, and called by him the facial angla 

 Unfortunately, however, the operations of nature in the animal creation can. 

 never be subjected to geometrical laws ; nor can her innumerable phases be 

 expressed with the precision of a mathematical theorem. This assumed 

 point of comparison varies almost indefinitely not merely in different spe- 

 cies, but even in the same individual ; and the oran-otang himself, who is 

 supposed to approach most nearly to the human form, ofl'ei-s the most strik- 

 ing illustration of the truth of this observation ; inasmuch as in his yonng 

 and intellectual state his facial angle is equal to 05", wliile in his aged and 



