112 RELATIONS OF MAN WITH EXTERNAL NATURE. 



in them, the sarcodous processes are extremely long and thread-like, often 

 very numerous, like roots (rliizon, a root ; pous, a foot), and frequently coalesce 

 at their extremities ; they are named pseudopodia ; they are often thrust 

 through the minute openings in the perforated shells, which have suggested 

 the name Foraminifera given to these interesting and abundant animals. 

 Lastly, in the Gregarinida, the soft body is destitute of envelope, contractile 

 processes or pseudopodia, and contractile vacuoles, and presents only a nucleus 

 in its interior, with a contained nucleolus. They constitute the lowest and 

 simplest forms of the animal series, being unicellular, and composed of naked 

 nucleated portions of sarcode or protoplasm, elsewhere mentioned as gymno- 

 plasts. The reproduction of these lowest Protozoa is also extremely simple, 

 being sometimes, at least apparently, non-sexual, a certain portion of the 

 parent animal, which first becomes encysted, undergoing direct transforma- 

 tion into a mass of young. 



Position of Man in the Animal Series. 



Such being the outlines of the vast array of the animal kingdom, 

 the zoological position of man is, as we have seen, at its very summit; 

 for he occupies the highest position in the class Mammalia, in the sub- 

 kingdom Vertebrata. Whether he should be arranged with the Quad- 

 ruinana in one order, the Primates (Linnaeus), or be separated from 

 them to form a distinct order, Bimana (Blumenbach, Cuvier), or be 

 still further distinguished from the animals by being placed in a sepa- 

 rate subclass, Archencephala (Owen), is a purely zoological question, 

 not to be discussed here. Whichever view comes to be ultimately 

 adopted, the anatomical characteristics of man are well marked, even 

 when his structure is compared with that of the highest anthropoid 

 apes. His structural peculiarities will be found to depend chiefly on 

 the following conditions, viz., the perfect adaptation of his skeleton 

 and muscles to the erect attitude maintained upon the hinder extremi- 

 ties exclusively, so as to set entirely free the anterior limbs for special, 

 but non-locomotive, purposes ; the comparatively soft nature of his 

 food ; his want of special organs of offence ; and, lastly, the higher 

 organization of his brain to fit it to become the instrument of superior 

 intellectual endowments. These points will be hereafter respectively 

 considered in the chapters on locomotion, mastication, and the func- 

 tions of the brain. It may, however, here be added, that the general 

 form of the human body and its parts is rounder, fuller, and more 

 richly modelled, than that of any of the animals nearest to him ; and 

 that his skin is almost destitute of hairy covering. Physiological, 

 social, moral, and psychical differences also distinguish him in a re- 

 markable manner from any animals. Such are his slow growth, 

 associated, doubtless, with the ultimate perfection of his organization 

 and powers ; his necessarily long-continued dependence on his parents ; 

 his adaptability to all kinds of climate, soil, and food ; his marked 

 improvability, dependent on the subjection of his instincts to his rea- 

 son ; his perception of the abstract beyond the concrete ; and, as con- 

 sequences of this, the formation of abstract ideas, the invention of 

 speech and language, communication of mind with mind, the preserva- 

 tion and transmission of knowledge from one generation to another, a 

 moral sense of duty to others and to himself, and a consciousness of 



