THE PRINCIPLES OF RANK AMONG ANIMALS. 



33 



The Chairman (Professor E. Hull, LL.D., F.R.S.) — I am sure 

 you will all wish to accord a vote of thanks to the Author of 

 this Paper (applause) and to its reader (hear, hear). 



Captain F. Petrie, F.G.S., the Hon. Secretary. — We had hoped 

 for the presence of the United States Minister Plenipotentiary* 

 this evening, but a letter of regret just received from the Legation 

 announces his departure for America. With regard to the Paper 

 just read, a letter mentions that " Professor James D. Dana, 

 LL.D., F.R.S., has signified his approval of the Author's descrip- 

 tion of his views, and in other respects, and on zoological grounds, 

 he considers man 'the only primate;'" — a statement reminding 

 one of the opinion given by Professor Virchow in a late Address 

 (Volume xxiv, p. 262 of the Institute's Journal), in which, 

 speaking of the question as to whether it was possible for the 

 most degraded savages to have descended from apes, he says : 

 " No one can answer with an absolute No. Why should it not be 

 possible ? But from possibility to reality there is a very long 

 step ; even all else that constitutes an ape. For it is not merely 

 the process of the temporal bone, the catarrhine nose, and the 

 prognathic jaw, that make an ape, but many other characteristics 

 are necessary to constitute him. First of all we can demonstrate 

 an ape from every strip of hide : No anatomist, I suppose, has ever 

 doubted the fact. Indeed, the distinctions between Man and Ape 

 reach so far, that almost every fragment suffices for a diagnosis." 

 It will be remembered that Professor Virchow long ago men- 

 tioned that the further his investigations went the greater seemed 

 the gulf between Man and Ape.t 



Some important communications have been received in regard 

 to Professor Parker's valued Paper. 



The Rev. Professor Duns, D.D., F.R.S.E., New College, Edin- 

 burgh, writes : — 



'' I have read and re-read Professor Parker's Paper, ' Principles of 

 Rank among Animals.' The subject is one of much interest both 

 from the Natural Science and the Natural Theology points of 



* Now an Ambassador. 



t His arguments at the "Moscow Anthropological Congress," 1892, 

 were to the same effect. — Ed. 



D 



