HISTORY 
OF 
THE AMERICAN FAUNA. 
Ordee I. — ' 
The study of the Natural History of Man embraces 
almost every branch of human knowledge ; it is not, 
therefore, necessary in this portion of the present 
work to enter far into its domain. 
In accordance with a generally accepted system, 
we introduce Man as the superior of the Animal 
Kingdom — the sole representative of the Archen- 
cephala — forming one order, and a solitary genus. 
That Man is thus fairly placed, is the nearly unani- 
mous feeling of naturalists, though it has been the 
fashion of a few to declare such a bestowal an indig- 
nity unworthy of the lordly creature. 
Researches bearing upon the question of the pro- 
gress and antiquity of the human race are, at the 
present time, pursued with great interest and zeal. 
The discoveries in caves and superficial deposits, of 
fragments of pottery and stone implements, and, more 
rarely, human remains, have led to the belief that Man 
was coeval with some of the extinct Mammalia. This 
belief has been largely strengthened by various 
recent discoveries, particularly in the western por- 
tions of North America. It is our purpose here to 
arrange, as concisely as possible, the facts touching 
this subject which are extant, and thus present all 
that can be gleaned of recognized scientific truth. 
In the original pages of the main portion of this 
work will be found, as a commencing chapter, an ex- 
cellent treatise on the subject of races, and some 
valuable matter on the psychological and physio- 
logical relations of the human form to the next 
higher Mammalia. 
Cuvier, in his character of the order Bimana, affirms 
that Man is the only animal that possesses hands and 
feet — “ L’homme est le seul animal vraiment bimane 
et bipMe.” The Quadrumana are distinguished by 
having hands instead of feet; a hand being de- 
fined by Owen as having “ the structural modification 
in the genus Homo, more especially those of the 
pelvic limbs, by which the erect stature and bipedal 
gait are maintained, such as to claim for Man, on 
merely external zoological characters, ordinal distinc- 
tion, at least.” 
Man’s psychological powers, in association with his 
extraordinarily developed brain, entitle the group 
which he represents to rank with the primary divi- 
sion of the class Mammalia, founded on cerebral char- 
VoL. I— a. 
BIMANA. 
acters. In this class, Man forms but one genus, and 
that genus is in the one order — Bimana — on account 
of the opposable thumb being restricted to the upper 
limb. To arrive at a just conception of Man, we 
cannot regard him exclusively as an individual being, 
for he is, as was well observed by Aristotle, a 
social being. As a single object he is beyond com- 
prehension. Anatomy and physiology alone cannot 
determine his nature ; neither can they, aided by 
psychology. We strive to know ourselves, but it is 
our social life that in a great measure furnishes to us 
knowledge of Man ; beyond this, we must look to 
histories of peoples, and, ultimately, over the entire 
range of civilization. The testimony of Egyptian 
antiquities shows, that the civilization of mankind 
reaches farther back than the period assigned to 
Adam by tJie Jewish law-giver, and now we have 
abundant evidence looking to a period beyond what 
we were wont to term civilization, yet one disclosing 
a high order of attainments in certain attributes of 
mankind. 
Dr. Foster, in his recent work. The Pre- Historic 
Races of the United States, says : “ The combined 
investigations of geologists and ethnologists, prose- 
cuted during the last quarter of a century, have 
thrown much light upon the origin of the human 
race, and developed facts which require us to essen- 
tially modify our pre-existing views as to the length 
of time during which it has occupied our planet. 
That Man lived at a time far too remote to be em- 
braced in our received system of chronology, sur- 
rounded by great quadrupeds which have ceased to 
exist, and under a climate very different from what 
now prevails, has been so clearly demonstrated 
that the fact must now be accepted as scientific 
truth.” 
Sir John Lubbock says: “Ethnology is passing 
through a phase from which other sciences have 
safely emerged ; and the new view in reference to the 
antiquity of Man, though still looked upon with dis- 
trust and apprehension, will, I doubt not, in a few 
years be regarded with as little disquietude as are 
those discoveries in geology and astronomy which at 
one time excited even greater opposition.” 
European archaeologists have divided their subject- 
matter into two principal heads : the Stone Age and 
