iS45 'VESTIGES OF CREATION' 251 



296), you overlook the fact that the highest of all 

 the Quadrumana, the chimpanzee, is exclusively a 

 native of Africa. The coincidence will doubtless 

 be highly agreeable to one inclined to base his 

 views on such insecure grounds that the highest 

 Quadrumana in the continental metropolis of the 

 Ethiopian race should be black, whilst the orang, 

 in the centre of the Malayan variety of man, 

 should approximate so nearly to the characteristic 

 tint of that variety. These considerations, to- 

 gether with the resemblance of the chimpanzee s 

 skull in its prominent superorbital arch and some 

 other characters to the Melanian form of cranium, 

 interested me so much w T hilst investigating the 

 physiological possibility of the development of 

 the Hottentot from the chimpanzee, without, I 

 believe, the slightest prejudice against such a 

 relationship ; but many particulars in the ana- 

 tomy of both black and red orangs are decisive 

 against such a hypothesis in the present state of 

 physiological knowledge. There are a few mistakes 

 where you treat of my own department of science, 

 easily rectified in your second edition. Thus, 

 on page 333 : " The ray belongs to the highest 

 and best framed order of fishes. The myxine is 

 the lowest, and nearest the Invertebrata ;" but 

 upon the whole the zoology and anatomy of the 

 work is correct, and near upon the present level. 

 I take the liberty, in reference to the idea and 

 diagram given in page 212, to request your at- 



