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ORDER II. QUADRUMANA. 



THIS ORDER CONSISTS OF THREE FAMILIES 



SIMIADJE J OR, MONKEYS OF THE OLD WORLD. 

 CEBID.E J OR, MONKEYS OF THE NE\V WORLD. 

 LEMURID^l ; OR, LEMURINE ANIMALS. 



THE GENERAL CHARACTERS OF THE QUADRUMANOUS ORDER. 







THE structure of the Quadrumanous Mammalia exhibits a semblance 

 of approach, more or less appreciable, to that of the human race ; 

 diminishing, however, in proportion as it is strictly examined. The 

 conditions of their existence, to meet which their conformation is accord- 

 ingly modified, involve certain structural peculiarities, which, in con- 

 nexion with the development of their brain, the form of their skull, their 

 system of dentition, and other details, justly entitle them, but not without 

 a wide interval, to succeed Man in the scale of animal organization. 



For the most part tenants of the forest, and peculiarly qualified as 

 climbers, their extremities are each furnished with organs of prehension, 

 which, when we compare them with the analogous organs of the succeed- 

 ing groups, may be well defined as hands, but of which the posterior are 

 really the most hand-like, having the thumb more apart, more powerful, 

 and antagonizing more decidedly with the fingers, than is the case on 

 the fore-hands, where it is always feeble, and sometimes even destitute 

 of the quality that justifies its attribute. The extraordinary freedom 

 and activity, among the branches of the forest, which this modification 

 of the limbs bestows, become much diminished when the animals descend 

 to the level ground : on a plane surface,, their movements want energy 

 and decision : some, it is true, scamper along with tolerable speed on 

 all-fours ; but their gait is oblique and uneasy : others, again, are slow, 

 awkward, and embarrassed in the extreme. 



The anterior limbs, or arms, are comparatively more vigorous than 

 the posterior ; arid the power of pronation and supination, enjoyed by the 

 fore-arms, gives them a marked advantage. The form and situation of 



