MELLIN’ S NAFORALIST S LIBRA Y, 
MAMMALS. 
ORDER: PRINLA IMSS. 
LEMURS, MONKEYS AND APES. 
INTRODUCTION. 
Or the varied forms of animal life that people the globe, those 
that possess a back-bone and two pairs of limbs (the VER- 
TEBRATA) are considered the highest in the scale. Of the 
Vertebrata, those are held to be of superior organisation which 
possess warm red blood and suckle their young with milk from 
the breast (¢.e.,.MAMMALIA). Our present volume deals with 
the highest and most specialised group of the Mammalia, and, 
therefore, of the whole Animal Kingdom. 
Man, in respect of his mental endowments, stands alone and 
unapproachable among living creatures. Considered as to his 
‘place in nature,” however, he must be described as an erect- 
walking Mammal, possessing anterior extremities developed 
into hands of great perfection, for exclusive use as tactile and 
grasping organs, and posterior limbs, on which his body is 
perfectly balanced and entirely supported, exclusively devoted 
to locomotion, as well as highly specialised cerebral characters. 
These attributes in part constitute the standard by which we 
estimate superiority in animal structure, and fitness of adapta- 
tion. 
Notwithstanding the numerous varieties and races of man- 
3—V. I B 
