340 QUADRUMANA. 



Monkeys, of America, as a distinct family, intermediate between the 

 Monkeys and the Lemurs, thus dividing his order into three primary 

 groups; viz., Monkeys, Ouistitis, and Lemurs; the same value being 

 accorded to the intermediate group as to the first and last. Geoffroy 

 St. Hilaire, on the other hand, with more adherence to Nature, divides 

 the Quadrumana into the following primary groups, or families ; namely, 

 I. Catarrhini (/caret, downward ; 'plv, the nose) ; or Monkeys of the Old 

 World. II. Platyrhini (TrXarv?, wide), or Monkeys of the New World. 

 III. Strepsirhini (trrpe(/>G>, to turn or twist), or Lemurs, and the genera in 

 alliance with them. 



The names chosen by Geoffrey St. Hilaire, besides being harsh, are 

 otherwise unfortunate : descriptive only of certain characters, they 

 convey no ideas beyond ; they do not lead us to the selection of any 

 typical form, as the representative of either of the groups, from which 

 some general notion of the whole may be at once acquired ; points, in 

 which pure family names, or patronymics, taken from that of the normal 

 or typical group, have so decided an advantage. Instead of the terms 

 used by Geoffroy, the following appellations (having a patronymic form), 

 Simiadae, Cebidae, and Lemuridse, may be substituted, as being not only 

 more expressive and appropriate, but, also, and which is not altogether 

 unimportant, more easily borne in remembrance.* 



As has been already expressed, it is rather by comparison, than 

 absolutely, that the term hands can be applied to the grasping organs of 

 the Quadrumana ; but, even in this modified sense, the term is not 

 always applicable ; and, here, allusion is made more particularly to two 

 forms, respecting which naturalists have widely differed, but which, not- 

 withstanding their structural aberration in certain details, still exhibit 

 such affinities to the Lemuridae as to induce the Author to remove them 



common, as respects their natural habits." Buff. Hist. Nut. 4to., vol. xiv. p. 367. We may farther 

 observe, that the Opossums of America were also regarded by him as the representatives of the 

 Lemurs ; a point in which some naturalists concur most fully ; but which, to say no more, admits 

 of being questioned. 



* On due consideration, the termination idae, or adae, as the ultimate syllable of the word may 

 require, is adopted as the sign of a family name. Family names, for the sake of uniformity and con- 

 venience, and the principle being once known, of clearness and certainty, should have, in every case, 

 a similar termination. In the assumption of a patronymic form for such words, it becomes a matter 

 of little consequence whether or not their meaning be strictly conformable with the patronymics of 

 which the classics afford examples, and in which likeness to, descent from, or consanguinity with some 

 person, on whose name the patronymic is modelled, is implied, but in which the person himself cannot 

 be included. On the contrary, the family names, with a patronymic termination, adopted by the 

 naturalist, necessarily include the group on the name of which that of the family is constructed : 

 thus, Vultur, Vulturidse, the latter including the restricted genus Vultur ; Muscicapa, Muscicapidae ; 

 the latter including the genus Muscicapa ; Anas, Anatidae, &c. This application of a patronymic 

 term may not be strictly classical or correct ; nevertheless, so much precision and convenience result 

 from it, that few hesitate in its adoption. A rule once established should never be broken : if, for 

 example, family names be distinguished by the termination idae, or adae, then, to make Simiae, 

 Vultures, Muscicapas, the family names of groups, and Simiadae, Vulturidae, Muscicapidae, the 

 family names of other groups, also having a resemblance to the preceding, because of such resemblance, 

 is to produce confusion and misapprehension. 



