PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 503 
38d. The animals and plants of the present epoch are me derivatives 
with modification of antecedent forms to an unlimited extent 
4 An arrangement of organized beings in any iia series is, 
therefore, impossible, and the system of sequences adopted by genealo- 
ern taxonomy (Linnzeus) must be followed, subject to such deviations as 
our increased knowledge of structure necessitates. 
e adoption of such principles compels us to reject such systems as 
are based solely on modifications of the brain, those of the placenta, and 
those of the organs of progression, such modifications not being coinci- 
dent with corresponding modifications of other organs, and therefore not 
the expressions of the sum of agreements in structure. 
Commencing with the highest forms of mammals we have, by univer- 
sal consent, the Primates. This Linnean order, purged of the Chiroptera 
referred to it by its founder, includes man, the monkeys, and the lemurs, 
with their respective allies. It is divisible into two suborders —the An- 
thropoidea and the Lemuroidea 
The subjects of the next highest group are not so universally recog- 
nized, but the Ferz or Carnivora, on account of the nature of the skele- 
ton, the development of the brain, and the organs for "e perpetuation of 
ai kind, seem to be most entitled to that rank. s order seems to 
mbrace as suborders the ordinary gressorial E (iesipsäia) and 
ipe Pinnipedia, or Seals, Walrus, etc 
An extinct type — the Zeuglodentes — is related on the one hand to the 
Seals, and on the other to the toothed Pacta The relation with the 
latter is, however, the most intimate, an may be combined with them 
and the whale-bone whales into one in aika Cete — of which each 
form represents a suborder. The relations of the order with the Fere is 
only masked by the extreme teleological modifications. : 
Evidently the derivatives from the same stem as the Ferm, the Insect- 
ivora, may be placed next in order. The affinity of the Chiroptera to that 
order is now universally recognized, aU ay ag the extreme teleo- 
T 
n org 
to indicate, with sufficient ipis uia i sees egraded are their rank. 
he relations of the subclass Didelphia, with its single order Marsupi- 
alia, and of the subclass Ornithodelphia, with another unique order Mon- 
otremata are now recognized beyond dispute. 
esuming now the consideration of the sequence by linear series, we 
may approach by normally specialized forms, the more generalized of 
each series, and thence in such cases as are necessary diverge in another 
