ORDER OF QUADEUMANA. 555 



des Plantes, in Paris, whicli is singularly named "Monkeys' 

 Palace." 



Some species of Monkeys vary considerably with, age, either 

 in regard to their figure (principally in the shape of the cranium 

 and face) or their colour ; and, imtil lately, it was imagined 

 in several cases that the old and young of the same species belonged 

 to different races. This diversity in appearance in the same indi- 

 vidual, according to the successive phases of its existence, has given 

 rise to many errors in their scientific nomenclature. 



Cuvier and the naturalists of his time believed that the Monkey 

 did not exist in the primitive ages of our globe. It was only 

 in 1837 that fossil remains of this animal were found in the 

 deep strata of the earth. This discovery, made by M. Lartet in 

 the soil of Sansan, near Auch (Gers), of fossil Monkeys belonging 

 to a species of Gibbon, dispelled these conjectures, and proved that 

 Monkeys were in existence at a very remote geological epoch. 



The family of Monkeys is divided into two great divisions, 

 based on well-defined characters : the Monkeys of the Old World, 

 and those of the New. It is to Buffon that the honour is due of 

 having made this distinction, which has been from day to day 

 better justified by the progress of zoology. 



None of the American species are represented in the Old World, 

 and vice versd ; this is an incontestable fact, which it is essential to 

 bring prominently forward, in order to remove all uncertainty 

 in the history of Monkeys. 



We will first examine the Monkeys of the New World, whose 

 position comes naturally after that of the Ouistitis. 



MONKEYS OF THE NEW WORLD. 



The American Monkeys have the nostrils opening laterally, 

 and separated by a wide interval, like the Ouistitis. Their teeth 

 are thirty-two or thirty-six in number, according to the genera, 

 but they always include three pairs of molars in each jaw ; the 

 number of milk-teeth is constantly twenty- four. We have already 

 stated that all these Mammalia have the tad more or less long. 

 We must add, in order to describe them more fully, that they are 

 slim and elegant in form, that in youth they show themselves to 



