THE PRIXCIPLES OF PANK AMONG AXIMALS. 



29 



and vice versa. The great kangaroo distances in speed a 

 greyhound, but in its brain, larynx, sacrum, etc., partakes of 

 the reptihan. The inferior character may be admirable in 

 itself; biconcave vertebrae have their advantage, but are 

 characteristic of fish, and therefore are a low mark in some 

 batrachians and reptiles, and a cretaceous bird. Oji the 

 other hand a patrician element may exalt a plebeian animal, 

 as notably, the bill and eyes of a cuttle-fish. The teeth of 

 the hoofed Anoplotheria were in some respects nearer to the 

 human than those of the higher apes, but man is no less 

 apart from all. 



14. Intermediate, mixed, and generalized organisms may 

 be here grouped under one head of remark, not referring, as 

 in the preceding paragraph, to pronounced types with one 

 or more seemingly borrowed features. They rank high or 

 low according as they approximate to a class (or order) 

 above or below that which is on the whole their own — the 

 extinct reptilian birds being an obvious example of low 

 grade. The term " generalized type" should be confined to 

 forms that, without any very specialized features (as regarded 

 in the light of now existing animals) were or are as if 

 fusions of characters now more developed and distinctly 

 separated ; such, for example, were the first herbivores, and 

 such now, on a low plane, the worms ; as but little specialized 

 they stand beJow their more distinguished kindred. ]\Ian, 

 as alone specialized to the highest conceivable ends, is not of 

 the same order with simians, nor, in this light, of the same 

 kingdom except as its king. 



15. The absence or abortion of an element of structure 

 belonging to a group is, with exceptions, a sign of in- 

 feriority — exceptions such as the reduced number of digits 

 for advanced function, e.g., speed in the horse. Whales are 

 low-caste mammals, not only as fish-like, but as lacking some 

 normal parts of their class — less lacking in seals. Aquatic 

 mammals have been classed by some as Mutilates, as 

 it mutilated.* In respect to man this principle has no 

 application, so far as it concerns internal structure. But, 

 there is the important absence of a superficial feature com- 



* Aquatic plants are generally inferior to those of the land, not needing 

 rigid supportiug tissues, nor conditioned for floral display. So in respect 

 to aquatic animals, the buoyancy of water and the ready ingulfing of 

 swimming prey or floating food, render unnecessary a high organization 

 for locomotion and prehension. 



