162 ON CERTAIN MODERN VIEWS 



regard to aspect, habits, powers, capacities, and structural or typical 

 perfection ? Are we to ignore the fact, pressed upon our attention 

 from within and from without, in a thousand different ways, that Man 

 is a compound being, compound in a sense in which no other animal 

 is so ? 



Those who have paid any attention to the natural history of Man 

 must be acquainted with the list of distinctive characteristics which 

 are pointed out as forming a barrier between him and all other ani- 

 mals. Lawrence, who has studied the subject closely, gives sixteen 

 of these. But all of these sixteen may not be absolutely necessary 

 for the purpose required. A few of them so signally mark Man's 

 preeminence over the brutes, as to be sufficient to establish him in 

 his true position as Archon of the whole animal kingdom. 



Modern naturalists who are not prepossessed with the hypothesis 

 of development, lay much stress on Man's pre-eminence in the matter 

 of that wonderful organ, his Hand, which vindicates his claim to be 

 ranked by himself in the order of Animalia Bimana. The term which 

 they apply to the hands of Man, in contradistinction to those of the 

 Quadrumana, (which name, by the way. Prof. Huxley attempts alto- 

 gether to explode), is Cephalic. That is, they belong to the head, 

 they are used by cerebral guidance, and are not, in the adult, organs 

 of progression, whilst the corresponding organs • of the Quadrumana 

 always are. Although the fore-limb of the Quadrumana is furnished 

 with a hand, yet it is a much less useful and capable organ than that 

 which Man possesses. The thumb of the Quadrumana is short and 

 weak, in the Ourang and Chimpanzee reaching no further than the 

 metacarpo-digital articulation. The human thumb is so powerful and 

 useful, acting in opposition to the fingers, that Albinus has described 

 it as a smaller hand aiding the larger one — " manus parva, adjutrix 

 majorir 



Secondly, Man's smoothness of integument, particularly marked in 

 the female, distinguishes him from the quadrumanous animals. The 

 absence of all means of defence and of covering, supplied by nature, 

 shows that he must rely on his superior mental qualifications, as an 

 inventor and mechanician, for a supply of these. 



Thirdly, Man possesses a capability of adapting himself to external 

 circumstances, atmospheric, climatic, and dietetic, which no other ani- 

 mal can lay claim to. The Quadrumana are all natives of warm 

 climates, and when removed to a certain distance from the equator. 



