12 
SYSTEM OF NATURE. 
normal character of man placing him in the centre, the 
other groups surround him : the relative position of these, 
although doubtless fixed, is immaterial to my present 
purpose. Sloths, if structurally similar to either, are 
equally so to both : their station, therefore, may be given 
provisionally as under :— 
Simia. Lemur. 
Homo. 
Bradypus. 
The names of genera are here introduced as expressing 
the groups to which those genera belong. I wish it to be 
most distinctly understood that the restricted genera, Si¬ 
mia, Lemur and Bradypus, are not intended to be placed 
in contact with the surrounding groups. Simia in parti¬ 
cular recedes from the Ferae rather than approaches them. 
It now becomes necessary to examine the remaining 
groups of placental animals, and if we consider Primates 
to be the normal group, I think we shall find it convenient 
to divide the remainder into three subnormal and three 
abnormal groups, the subnormal groups forming a tolerably 
complete series among themselves, but the abnormal 
groups being apparently less connected with each other. 
The subnormal groups are the Ferae, Glires and Belluae ; 
and the abnormal groups the Cheiroptera or bats, Bruta 
or ant-eaters, and Cete or whales, each of the latter de¬ 
parting widely from the structure of the Primates, and 
becoming as it were placental birds, placental reptiles and 
