58 GENESIS OE MAN. 



bitions of the armless man, who travelled through our towns and 

 displayed marvellous feats performed with his toes. Again, infants 

 make far more use of their great toes than adults do. Watch a 

 new-born babe as it lies in its cradle and amuses itself with exer- 

 cise of its muscular activities ; compare the movements of its 

 hands with those of its feet, and you cannot but be struck with the 

 comparative indifference with which it manages both. The human 

 foot, whose careful study has been said to constitute a sure cure 

 for atheism, and whose wonderful adaptation to the purpose to 

 which it is applied has been regarded as an unanswerable argument 

 for the doctrine of design, can therefore be nothing more than a 

 natural result of the modification of the posterior hand of the ape, 

 in simple obedience to the mechanical law of adaptation to changed 

 conditions, while in it are found all the visible elements of that 

 ancestral organ which the equally monistic law of heredity has 

 transmitted from our simian progenitors. Huxley, therefore, re- 

 stores the Linnaean order Primates, removing only the Chiroptera. 

 Haeckel, however, would adhere to his order Prosimiae, the lemurs, 

 for the reasons above stated. 



The true apes are primarily divided into two great groups, which 

 are as distinct geographically as they are anatomically. These are 

 the Catarrhinac or Old World apes, and the Platyrrhinae , or New 

 World monkeys. They differ chiefly in two important respects. 

 The Platyrrhinae have a fiat and broad nose, like other animals. 

 The nostrils open outwardly , and are separated by a broad interval. 

 They have, also, thirty-six teeth, eighteen in each jaw. In both 

 these respects they differ from man. The Catarrhinae, on the 

 other hand, have a somewhat projecting, laterally compressed, and 

 often arched or aquiline nose, with the nostrils close together and 

 opening dozvnwards. They have only thirty-two teeth, or sixteen 

 in each jaw. In both these respects they agree with man. The 

 clear-cut, much projecting, and elegantly formed nose of the Nose- 

 ape iSemnopithecus nasicus) would adorn the face of any European 

 nobleman, while the countenance, taken in its ensemble, of Cerco- 

 pithecus petaurista would be sure to call to any one's mind some 

 not very bad-looking person of his own acquaintance. And yet 

 these handsome apes are endowed with long tails. Not only is 

 the number of the teeth of the Catarrhinac the same as in man, 

 but they are distributed in precisely the same manner, namely : — 



