considered as a zoological Character. 4-55 



■j 



comparative thickness of the septum, and the absence of cheek 

 pouches and callosities. The American animals, in fact, are 

 not Quadrumana ; and, consequently, they can no longer be 

 included in the same family with the Simiae of Asia and 

 Africa : they are, properly speaking, Pedimana ; and it now 

 remains for us to consider what are their true relations, and 

 the position which they actually occupy in the scale of animal 

 life. 



In the first place, it follows, as a necessary consequence of 

 the observations which I have here announced and detailed, 

 that these animals can no longer be included in the same 

 group with the Quadrumana, properly so called, with the 

 Simise and Lemuridae, of which the essential and only uni- 

 versal zoological character consists in having the thumbs op- 

 posable to the other fingers on the anterior as well as on the 

 posterior extremities. This character, of the highest influence 

 as regards the habits and economy of the animals, and uni- 

 versally admitted to be the most important element in the 

 principles which govern their natural arrangement, is wanting 

 in the American animals; and, consequently, any system which 

 includes them in a group founded entirely upon this peculiar 

 modification of the organs of prehension must be purely 

 arbitrary, and fail to express the actual relations which sub- 

 sist between them and the true Simiae. But, though the 

 most important and influential, this is by no means the only 

 distinction between these two groups of mammals; the absence 

 of cheek pouches and callosities, the peculiar form of the 

 septum naris, and the superior number of the molar teeth, in 

 the American family, have long been recognised and admitted ; 

 and there are still other characters, less prominent, perhaps, 

 but not less influential, by which they are equally distinguished, 

 and which degrade them materially in the scale of animal life. 

 Of these the fierce and intractable disposition of some, the 

 decidedly carnivorous propensities of others, and the limited 

 intelligence of the whole group, may be adduced, as manifestly 

 approximating them to the Carnivora, and abstracting them 

 altogether from the character and appetites of the Quadru- 

 mana. Indeed, it is only in the Cebi and Callitrices that we 

 recognise anything like the liveliness, intelligence, and doci- 

 lity of true Simiae. The A "teles, it is true, are quiet and inoffen- 

 sive ; but this arises from apathy or stupidity : all the others 

 are morose, sullen, and apathetic, or exhibit a fierceness and 

 intractability of temper entirely at variance with the character 

 of frugivorous animals. Here, again, it will be observed, that 

 this difference in the intellectual faculties and moral disposi- 

 tion, if I may be allowed the expression, of the American 



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