ON THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE SIMIAD^E. 357 



second tooth, found in the same locality, which he indentifies with the 

 second molar of a Macacus ; and which evidently belonged to an aged 

 animal. It differs, he observes, from the corresponding tooth of a recent 

 Macacus, of the same size, in having a slight ridge along the base of the 

 anterior part of the crown ; and the same characters, he adds, distinguish 

 the posterior molar of the Macacus described in the September Number 

 of the Magazine of Natural History, 1839. Thus, then, is the fact 

 established, of the existence of Quadrumana in our island (if then an 

 island) at some remote epoch. 



ON THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE SIMIAD^. 



WHEN Linnaeus framed his Systema Natures, the limited number of 

 Simiadae and Qebidae, then known, enabled him to do little more than 

 throw them all into a single genus, viz., Simia ; with a triple subdivision 

 of it, into Apes, Baboons, and Monkeys. Buffon, who, as already stated, 

 first clearly pointed out the distinction between the groups peculiar to 

 the Old World, and those of the New, divided the former into 1. Apes, 

 or Singes propre, sans queue ; 2. Baboons, or Papions a queue courte ; 

 and, 3. Monkeys, or Guenons Guenons a queue longue ; between which 

 latter and the Baboons, he considered the Maimon, or Pig-tailed Mon- 

 key, and the Rhesus, or Patas a queue courte, with other allied species, 

 to constitute an intermediate group.* These subdivisions, founded on 

 the absence, or, where present, on the comparative length of the tail, 

 Erxleben stamped with the formality of genera ; viz., Simia, includ- 

 ing the Orang, Chimpanzee, and Gibbons ; Papio, including the Baboons 

 and the Pig-tailed Monkey ; and Cercopithecus, including the Long- 

 tailed Monkeys of Asia and Africa. But these genera, which a farther 

 acquaintance with the structure and economy of the animals has led 

 naturalists to subdivide and re-arrange, serve only to shew the futility of 

 taking generic characters from one organ, to the exclusion of others. 

 For, though the tail, where well developed, in the Old World Monkeys, 

 takes a decided part in their economy, it does not, therefore, follow that 

 all species with long tails come under one group ; and that all with 

 short tails, again, belong to one genus ; neither is it a proof of generic 

 unity : for few, it is to be supposed, would place the Orang, the Chim- 

 panzee, and the Gibbons in one genus, any more than they would asso- 

 ciate the Semnopitheci with the Cercopitheci. 



* Cuvier erroneously observes, that the Macaque a queue courte of Buffon (Supp. vii. pi. xiii.) 

 appears to be merely a true Macaque ^Macacus cynomolgus) with the tail cut off. 



