1006 Man’s Place in Nature. 
tions which are incompatible with any but the highest existing 
perfection of bodily structure. Undoubtedly there are many 
points in which man is inferior to some animals which, : re 
whole, are structurally his inferiors. He cannot fly like a bin 
or insect, swim like a whale, climb like a monkey, or run lik 
horse ; his scent is inferior to that of many animals; in power 
distant vision birds surpass him; in strength and size he ise 
celled by many mammals, reptiles and fishes; yet no other a 
mal can be adduced which has so wide a range of bodily facul- 
ties. He can walk, he can run, he can swim (when he tries), 
can climb; his delicately constructed fingers can pick up 
smallest object, can shape the finest work, without having yet 
their power of grasping, pulling and pushing; his ears are sus 
ceptible of all the fine tones of harmony ; his eye can iate 
the nicest gradations of color; his touch and eye combined cat 
realize the myriad contours of form. Can any other animal fur- 
nish such a list of powers? Mee 
Amid all this superiority as a whole, man exhibits great incon 
pleteness and imperfection in parts, and this, combined with ger- 
eralization of organs and faculties, render it highly probable that 
future ages may witness much further evolution, both in the 
direction of the specialization and fixation of characters in dent 
ative species and in the wider range of powers possessed by the 
uncrystallized remainder. ; 
Already the term man includes several forms which 
much “species” as those so called by the naturalists, © 
popular prejudice will not recognize the fact. The Chinese ‘ 
the Ethiopian are as distinct from the Aryan as are the wo* e 
jackal from the dog, and within our own nationality GN 
exist which, as pointed out by Professor Cope, would 
generic were they not prevented from becoming so by the 
marriage of those which possess them with those who do : 
Man in his present condition possesses a body in which 
primitive mammalian type has been carried to great p“ 
without that corresponding degradation by loss of parts 
fixed so many creatures in an inferior position, yet as 
tendency of organic life is toward specialization in bs 
direction, it is likely that in the future there will split off 
Genera of Felidae and Canide, p. 27, Proceedings of the Academy of 
Sciences of Philadelphia, 1879. ae 
