s in this
matter, are liable to have their opinions misrepresented and their
phraseology garbled, until they seem to say that the structural
differences between man and even the highest apes are small and
insignificant. Let me take this opportunity then of distinctly
asserting, on the contrary, that they are great and significant; that
every bone of a Gorilla bears marks by which it might be distinguished
from the corresponding bone of a Man; and that, in the present creation,
at any rate, no intermediate link bridges over the gap between 'Homo'
and 'Troglodytes'.

It would be no less wrong than absurd to deny the existence of this
chasm; but it is at least equally wrong and absurd to exaggerate its
magnitude, and, resting on the admitted fact of its existence, to refuse
to inquire whether it is wide or narrow. Remember, if you will, that
there is no existing link between Man and the Gorilla, but do not forget
that there is a no less sharp line of demarcation, a no less complete
absence of any transitional form, between the Gorilla and the Orang, or
the Orang and the Gibbon. I say, not less sharp, though it is somewhat
narrower. The structural differences between Man and the Man-like apes
certainly justify our regarding him as constituting a family apart from
them; though, inasmuch as he differs less from them than they do from
other families of the same order, there can be no justification for
placing him in a distinct order.

And thus the sagacious foresight of the great lawgiver of systematic
zoology, Linnaeus, becomes justified, and a century of anatomical
research brings us back to his conclusion, that man is a member of the
same order (for which the Linnaean term PRIMATES ought to be retained)
as the Apes and Lemurs. This order is now divisible into seven families,
of about equal systematic value: the first, the ANTHROPINI, contains
Man alone; the second, the CATARHINI, embraces the old-world apes; the
third, the PLATYRHINI, all new-world apes, except the Marmosets; the
fourth, the ARCTOPITHECINI, contains the Marmosets; the fifth, the
LEMURINI, the Lemurs--from which 'Cheiromys' should probably be excluded
to form a sixth distinct family, the CHEIROMYINI; while the seventh,
the GALEOPITHECINI, contains only the flying Lemur 'Galeopithecus',--a
strange form which almost touches on the Bats, as the 'Cheiromys' puts
on a rodent clothing, and the Lemurs simulate Insectivora.

Perhaps no order of mammals presents u