THE GENEALOGY OP MAN. 219 



Blumenbach and Cuvier, and have placed man in a sepa- 

 rate order, under the title of the Bimana, and therefore 

 on an equality with the orders of the Quadrumana, Car- 

 nivora, etc. Recently many of our best naturalists have 

 recurred to the view first propounded by Linnseus, so re- 

 markable for his sagacity, and have placed man in the 

 sajne order with the Quadrumana, under the title of the 

 Primates. The justice of this conclusion will be ad- 

 mitted ; for, in the first place, we must bear in mind the 

 comparative insignificance for classification of the great 

 development of the brain in man, and that the strongly- 

 marked differences between the skulls of man and the 

 Quadrumana (lately insisted upon by Bischoff, Aeby, and 

 others) apparently follow from their differently developed 

 brains. In the second place, we must remember that 

 nearly all the other and more important differences be- 

 tween man and the Quadrumana are manifestly adaptive 

 in their nature, and relate chiefly to the erect position of 

 man ; such as the structure of his hand, foot, and pel- 

 vis, the curvature of his spine, and the position of his 

 head. The family of seals offers a good illustration of 

 the small importance of adaptive characters for classifica- 

 tion. These animals differ from all other Carnivora in 

 the form of their bodies and in the structure of their 

 limbs, far more than does man from the higher apes ; 

 yet in most systems, from that of Cuvier to the most re- 

 cent one by Mr. Flower, seals are ranked as a mere family 

 in the order of the Carnivora. If man had not been his 

 own classifier, he would never have thought of founding 

 a separate order for his own reception. 



As far as differences in certain important 



points of structure are concerned, man may 



no doubt rightly claim the rank of a sub-order ; and this 



