BIMANA. 53 



race, while others assert that they are mere degenerate offsets from the 

 Scythian and Tartar branch of the Caucasian stock. 



We have not yet been able to refer the Americans to any of the races of 

 the eastern continent; still, they have no precise nor constant character 

 which can entitle them to be considered as a particular one. Their copper 

 coloured complexion is not sufficient; their generally black hair and scanty 

 beard would induce us to refer them to the Mongoles, if their denned fea- 

 tures, projecting nose, large and open eye, did not oppose such a theory, 

 and correspond with the features of the European. Their languages are as 

 numberless as their tribes, and no demonstrative analogy has as yet been 

 obtained, either with each other, or with those of the old world. 



ORDER II. 



QUADRUMANA(l). 



Independently of the anatomical details which distinguish it from 

 Man, and which have been given, this family differs from our spe- 

 cies in a very remarkable way. All the animals belonging to it 

 have the toes of the hind feet free and opposable to the others, and 

 the toes are all as long and flexible as fingers. In consequence of 

 this, the whole species climb trees with the greatest facility, while it 

 is only with pain and difficulty they can stand and walk upright; their 

 foot then resting on its outer edge only, and their narrow pelvis 

 being unfavourable to an equilibrium. They all have intestines 

 very similar to those of man; the eyes directed forwards. The brain 

 has three lobes on each side, the posterior of which covers the cere- 

 bellum, and the temporal fossae are separated from the orbits by a 

 bony partition. In every thing else, however, they gradually lessen 

 in resemblance to him, by assuming a muzzle more and more elon- 

 gated, a tail and a gait more like that of quadrupeds. Notwithstand- 

 ing this, the freedom of their arms and the complication of their 

 hands allow them all to perform many of the actions of man as well 

 as to imitate his gestures. 



They have long been divided into two genera, the Monkeys and 

 the Lemurs^ which, by the multiplication of secondary forms, have 

 now become two small families, between which we must place a 



(1) Animals with four hands. 



