We should all, at once, agree upon placing him among the
mammalian vertebrates; and his lower jaw, his molars, and his brain,
would leave no room for doubting the systematic position of the new
genus among those mammals, whose young are nourished during gestation
by means of a placenta, or what are called the 'placental mammals.'
Further, the most superficial study would at once convince us that,
among the orders of placental mammals, neither the Whales, nor the
hoofed creatures, nor the Sloths and Ant-eaters, nor the carnivorous
Cats, Dogs, and Bears, still less the Rodent Rats and Rabbits, or the
Insectivorous Moles and Hedgehogs, or the Bats, could claim our 'Homo',
as one of themselves.
There would remain then, but one order for comparison, that of the Apes
(using that word in its broadest sense), and the question for
discussion would narrow itself to this--is Man so different from any of
these Apes that he must form an order by himself? Or does he differ
less from them than they differ from one another, and hence must take
his place in the same order with them?
Being happily free from all real, or imaginary, personal interest in the
results of the inquiry thus set afoot, we should proceed to weigh the
arguments on one side and on the other, with as much judicial calmness
as if the question related to a new Opossum.
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