CHAPTER EIGHTEEN. 

 MAMMALS AND MAN. 



1. The Special Development of Mammals. The 



specialization of mammals, as compared with other 

 vertebrates, is chiefly in connection with reproduction and 

 care of young. There is no group in which these functions 

 are more successfully cared for than in mammals. No 

 group has developed higher, finer, more successful instincts 

 and practises. The name mammals comes from the 

 mammary or milk glands by which the young are 

 nourished after birth. The developing embryo is carried 

 for a considerable period of its early development in an 

 internal organ of the mother. Here it is nourished and 

 protected from the unfavorable conditions outside. It is 

 largely because of these facts, and the instincts and habits 

 that grow up about them, whereby the bonds between the 

 young and the parents are strengthened, that the mam- 

 mals are so successful and seem to be at the head of the 

 animal kingdom. 



2. Man's Place with the Mammals. As an animal, man 

 is not different from the higher mammals in any very 

 important particulars. He has all the characters of the 

 mammals and some particular ones beside. His 

 reproduction is identical with theirs in all important 

 respects. He cares for his young somewhat better than 

 the others, and educates them longer, gives them a better 

 home, and more sympathy, but the beginnings of 

 everything man does for his children are found in what 

 other mammals do for theirs. 



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