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both are calculated for their mode of progression, climbing, and leaping from the branches of trees, just as the tail in some species is converted into a hand, and is as useful an instrument of suspension as any of the four extremities.*

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The armed extremities of a variety of animals give them great advantages; but if man pos

*This is a sketch of the Coaita, or Spider Monkey, so called from the extraordinary length of its extremities, and its motions. The tail answers all the purposes of a hand, and the animal throws itself about from branch to branch, sometimes swinging from the foot, sometimes by the hand, but oftener and with a greater reach by the tail. The prehensile part of the tail is covered only with skin, forming an organ of touch, as discriminating as the hand. The Caraya, or Black howling monkey of Cumana, when shot,

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WE ought to define the hand as belonging exclusively to man-corresponding in sensibility and motion with that ingenuity which converts the being who is the weakest in natural defence, to the ruler over animate and inanimate nature.

If we describe the hand as that extremity which has the thumb and fingers opposed to each other, so as to form an instrument of prehension, we extend it to the quadrumana or monkeys. But the possession of four hands by animals of that class implies that we include the posterior as well as the anterior extremities. Now the anterior extremity of the monkey is as much a foot as the posterior extremity is a hand;

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from the extraordinary length of its extremities, and its motions. The tail answers all the purposes of a hand, and the animal throws itself about from branch to branch, sometimes swinging from the foot, sometimes by the hand, but oftener and with a greater reach by the tail. The prehensile part of the tail is covered only with skin, forming an organ of touch, as discriminating as the hand. The Caraya, or Black howling monkey of Cumana, when shot,

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hension, we extend it to the quadrumana or monkeys. But the possession of four hands by animals of that class implies that we include the posterior as well as the anterior extremities. Now the anterior extremity of the monkey is as much a foot as the posterior extremity is a hand;

both are calculated for their mode of progression, climbing, and leaping from the branches of trees, just as the tail in some species is converted into a hand, and is as useful an instrument of suspension as any of the four extremities.*

[graphic]

The armed extremities of a variety of animals give them great advantages; but if man pos

* This is a sketch of the Coaita, or Spider Monkey, so called from the extraordinary length of its extremities, and its motions. The tail answers all the purposes of a hand, and the animal throws itself about from branch to branch, sometimes swinging from the foot, sometimes by the hand, but oftener and with a greater reach by the tail. The prehensile part of the tail is covered only with skin, forming an organ of touch, as discriminating as the hand. The Caraya, or Black howling monkey of Cumana, when shot,

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