OKDER OF QUADRTJMANA. 
555 
des Plantes, in Paris* which is singularly named “Monkeys’ 
Palace.” 
Some species of Monkeys vary considerably with age, either 
in regard to their figure (principally in the shape of the cranium 
and face) or their colour ; and, until lately, it was imagined 
in several cases that the old and young of the same species belonged 
to different races. This diversity in appearance in the same indi- 
vidual, according to the successive phases of its existence, has given 
rise to many errors in their scientific nomenclature. 
Cuvier and the naturalists of his time believed that the Monkey 
did not exist in the primitive ages * of our globe. It was only 
in 1837 that fossil remains of this animal were found in the 
deep strata of the earth. This discovery, made by M. Lartet in 
the soil of Sansan, near Auch (Gers), of fossil Monkeys belonging 
to a species of Gibbon, dispelled these conjectures, and proved that 
Monkeys were in existence at a very remote geological epoch. 
The family of Monkeys is divided into two great divisions, 
based on well-defined characters : the Monkeys of the Old World, 
and those of the New. It is to Buffon that the honour is due of 
having made this distinction, which has been from day to day 
better justified by the progress of zoology. 
None of the American species are represented in the Old World, 
and vice versa ; this is an incontestable fact, which it is essential to 
bring prominently forward, in order to remove all uncertainty 
in the history of Monkeys. 
We will first examine the Monkeys of the New World, whose 
position comes naturally after that of the Ouistitis. 
MONKEYS OE THE NEW WORLD. 
The American Monkeys have the nostrils opening laterally, 
and separated by a wide interval, like the Ouistitis. Their teeth 
are thirty- two or thirty-six in number, according to the genera, 
but they always include three pairs of molars in each jaw ; the 
number of milk-teeth is constantly twenty-four. We have already 
stated that all these Mammalia have the tail more or less long. 
We must add, in order to describe them more fully, that they are 
slim and elegant in form, that in youth they show themselves to 
