AND AFFINITIES OF THE GORILLA. 273 



applicable to the sole in the act of grasping' : by this " syndactylous " character the toes 

 seem to be shorter, but are made stronger for this purpose ; and their length is here 

 adverted to as it is manifested by their bones. The result is a limb adapted to functions 

 as distinct from those of the Human leg and foot as it is from those of the Bear or Dog. 

 If zoology assigns an ordinal value to the limb-characters which distinguish Carnivora 

 from Quadrumana, it must, in consistency, assign the same value to the limb-characters 

 which distinguish Quadrumana from Bimana. These distinctions are as plain in the 

 embryo as in the adult^, and are in no way affected by the anatomical demonstrations of 

 the homologies of the bones of the lower or hinder limb : on such ground, indeed, there 

 could be no zoology as a classificatory science. 



The Gorilla, by the legitimate application of such science, being relegated to the 

 Quadrumanous order in the Gyrencephalous subclass of MammaUa, the question be- 

 comes narrowed to its status and affinities in such order. Before, however, entering 

 upon this phase, I would premise a few words on the primary groups of the Quadrumana 

 of Cuvier. In the second edition of the ' Rdgne Animal,' 1829, after remarking that 

 the order had been divided for a long time into two groups, " les Singes " {Simla, Linn.) 

 and " les Makis " {Lemur, Linn.), he proposes to distinguish the Ouistitis (Hapale, 

 lUiger) as a group of equal value. 



Having availed myself of the earliest opportunity to compare the brain of an Ouistiti 

 {Hapale midas, lUig., Midas rufimanus, GeofFr.) with that of the Makis, on the one 

 hand, and of the Singes on the other, I found it to agree with the latter in the back- 

 ward coextension of the cerebrum with the cerebellum '. In all the Makis (Lemuridse) 

 about one-half or one-third of the cerebellum is left uncovered. The distinctive cha- 

 racters on which Cuvier relied for the separation of the Ouistitis were the number of 

 the molars, nails only on the hinder thumbs, and those of the fore limbs not meriting the 

 name of thumb ". The first of these characters as a mark of affinity to the Old-World 

 Simiee is deceptive : the number of " macheli^res " is, indeed, the same, but their kinds 



' Isidore Geoffroy St.-Hilaire, lamenting " the impediments to zoological science by the deplorable vagueness 

 pervading the meaning of the terms applied to characteristic organs," defines a " hand" as having long and flexible 

 digits opposable to the palm or sole, so as to be able to grasp or seize an object, which, if light and moveable, 

 can thus be brought to the mouth ; if heavy and fixed, can serve as a fulcrum for moving the animal's body : 

 he thus evades the objection based on the inadequacy of the thumb to oppose the fingers, in many Quadrumana. 

 (" Remarques sur la Classification et les Caracteres des Mammiferes, Premiere Memoire, Famille des Singes, 

 'Definition sooloffique du mot 'Main,'" Archives du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle, 4to, 1839, p. 17.) 



' See Breschet, " Recherches sur la Gestation des Quadrumanes," M^m. de I'Acad^mie des Sciences, tome xix. 

 1845, pi. 13. fig. 3 (Human embryo) and fig. 5 (embryo of Simia sabcea), at a period when the digital divisions 

 and phalanges begin to be marked by bone, but before there is any trace of ossification in the tarsus. 



' Phil. Trans, vol. cxxvii. (1837), pi. v. fig. 2 (copied in the " Classification of the MammaUa," Proc. Linn. 

 Soc. 1857, fig. 3). 



* " lis n'ont que vingt machelieres, comme les Singes de I'ancien continent:" "tons leurs ongles sont corn- 

 primes et pointus, except^ ceux des pouces de derriere ; et leurs pouces de devant s'ecartent si peu des autres 

 doigts, qu'on ne leur donne qu'en hesitant le nom de quadrumanes" {op. cit. p. 105). 



