SUMMARY. 305 



Lemuridse, and thfe interval is not wide from these to 

 the Simiadse. The Simiadae then branched off into 

 two great stems, the New World and Old World 

 monkeys ; and from the latter, at a remote period, 

 Man, the wonder and glory of the universe, pro- 

 ceeded." * 



Setting aside for the present this long pedigree 

 of man, let us consider some of the isolated phases 

 which have been established in the still incomplete 

 condition of modern science. As far as semi-apes 

 are concerned, whose near relation to men and 

 apes has of late been strongly urged, I agree with 

 those who, like Vogt, consider that their order, with 

 its variety of forms, points to a complex origin, 

 probably from marsupial animals, with which their 

 organization presents many common features ; hence 

 it appears that some of their forms belong to the 

 earliest Tertiary mammals with which we are well 

 acquainted. " In conclusion," he writes, " it appears, 

 from these facts, that any very close connection 

 between the semi-apes and apes, and hence with 

 man, cannot be proved. With the exception of the 

 opposing thumb, which is and was a widely diffused 

 characteristic common to many species, the semi- 

 apes have not a single anatomical feature in common 

 with apes. Their jaw, the most permanent charac- 

 teristic, places them in the insectivorous class ; to 

 enroll them among the ancestors of man is to set 

 at nought all the principles of scientific research." f 



That purely hypothetical being, the common 



* Darwin's Descent of Man, i. p. 212. 



t Die Sdugethiere in Wort und Bild, p. 67. 



