MAN AS THE TYPE OF A DISTINCT ORDER. 199 



the contrary, as already stated, Mr. Svvainson does not consider Man within 

 the pale of the animal kingdom. With more reason than the advocates 

 of either of the two quinary, or circular systems, other naturalists have 

 regarded Man as the example of an order per se ; having characters by 

 which it is distinguished from every other into which the mammal class 

 is divided. Among these, are Illiger and Cuvier. Illiger, in his Prodro- 

 mus Systematis Mammalium, has taken the name of this order from the 

 attitude of the human race, and entitled it ERECTA. Cuvier, from one of 

 the structural peculiarities of the race, viz., the possession of two true 

 hands, has termed it BIMANA ; a title which most naturalists, both Conti- 

 nental and British, have adopted. 



The essential characters of the order Bimana may be stated as follow : 



ATTITUDE erect, the body being supported on the lower limbs only, 

 which are developed according to the weight to be sustained, and the mode 

 in which that weight is to be supported; feet plantigrade, pentadactyle 

 (five-toed), non-prehensile. 



SUPERIOR EXTREMITIES free, claviculated, and terminating in true 

 hands, being organs of touch, and of prehension, and having the thumb so 

 developed as to antagonize with the tip of each finger separately, or with 

 the whole together. 



THE HEAD supported by, and nearly balanced upon, the spine ; the 

 cranial portion greatly developed in proportion to the face ; the lower jaw 

 short, and its symphysis modelled into a true chin. 



THE TEETH of equal length, and approximating together, without inter- 

 vals : incisors, J ; canines, short, \~ ; bicuspid molars, ~ ; true molars, 

 bluntly quadricuspid, g ;= 32. 



THE CEREBRAL HEMISPHERES OF THE BRAIN greatly preponderating ; 

 the mass of the brain being voluminous in proportion to the nerves com- 

 municating with it. 



GROWTH slow ; infancy long ; maturity acquired at a comparatively 

 late period. 



SKIN smooth : natural weapons, offensive or defensive, denied by 

 Nature. 



MAMMAE two, pectoral. 



Os COCCYGIS abbreviated, and incurved. 



Species, Homo sapiens, Linn. 



The mind of Man as displayed in the exercise of reason, memory, 

 imagination, hope, retrospection, comparison, imitation, in a perception of 

 the sublime, the beautiful, and the ridiculous, in friendship, love, and the 

 various social affections, and as involving speech, contradistinguished from 

 mere cries or sounds harmonizes with his physical endowments, and 

 proclaims him the lord of creation : " And God said, Let us make Man, 

 in our image, after our likeness : and let them have dominion over the fish 



