Page:The Last link.djvu/20



, we have to consider the relative place which comparative anatomy concedes to man in the 'natural system' of animals, for the true value of our 'natural classification' is based upon its meaning as a pedigree. All the minor and major groups of the system—the classes, legions, orders, families, genera, and species—are only different branches of the same pedigree. For man himself, his place in the pedigree has been fixed since Lamarck, in 1801, defined the group of vertebrates. The most perfect of these are