THE PRINCIPLES OP RANK AMONG ANIMALS. 



37 



allotted particularly to speecli* which does not occur in any other 

 organized brain whatever ; but the human brain is now clearly and 

 definitely marked cut, and that portion of which speech is its par- 

 ticular function. 



The Chairman. — Not having any claim whatever to be considered 

 an authority upon zoological matters you will not expect me to 

 say very much on this question. We a,re glad to have had the 

 views of an American naturalist on what we may call the great 

 question of the day. We have an abundance of literature and 

 of scientific views enunciated from time to time of what you may 

 call the two schools — one, tending to demonstrate that man is 

 nothing but a very superior kind of ape — the other, that he is 

 closely connected, with God. We recollect in the celebrated 

 debate in Parliament, what Lord Beaconsfield said on that sub- 

 ject, " As for me, I am on the side of the angels." (!) Well, 1 

 daresay most of us prefer to be ranked in that position ourselves. 

 The Author, however, has shown what we are all pretty well 

 familiar with — that there is a vast gulf between ourselves and the 

 apes, or any other order or genus in the whole range of animated 

 creation ; and, I think he has brought out one or two points 

 with special vividness from his own point of view. He goes, in 

 fact, very much beyond what most naturalists will in the present 

 state of the subject, though Mr. Kirby has informed us that the 

 view is held that man is not only a distinct order, but that he 

 belongs to a distinct kingdom. Did I understand Mr. Kirby to 

 say that ? 



Mr. KiRBT. — Yes ; among others I believe it is held by Professor 

 St. George Mivart, and was also held by the late Mr. J. W. Jackson 

 — men at the opposite poles of opinion ! 



The Chairman. — It is very satisfactory to have men of such 

 opposite views agree on that point. Of course the question will 

 depend on what this individuality is — this special feature. The 

 differences between mind and instinct and structure undoubtedly go 

 a very long way, and, as the Author of the Paper has pointed out, 

 the quadrumanous and bimanous are very distinct in their structure 

 and their necessary mode of progression, and the uses to which 

 the fore limbs are applied ; but, after all, it is the brain, as 



See Sir F. Batsman's Receiit Researches in Language, Transactions of 

 the Victoria Institute, Vol. vii. — Ed. 



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