Bimana

Bimana, an order of Mammals created by Cuvier for Man, but now only retained by the few zoologists who refuse to recognise the teachings of Evolution (q.v.). Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752-1840) appears to have first used the term in his treatise On the Natural Variety of Mankind, and as the authority of the Gottingen anatomist is so often invoked to defend the division of the Linnsean Primates (q.v.) into Bimana and Quadrumana, the passage is here given: - "From what has been so far said about the erect stature of man follows the highest prerogative of his external conformation, namely, the freest use of two most perfect hands. . . . For in the anthropomorphous apes themselves, the principal feature of the hands, I mean the thumb, is short in proportion, and almost nailless, and, to use the expression of the famous Eustachius, quite ridiculous; so that it is true that no other hand, except the human hand, deserves the appellation of the organ of organs with which the Stagirite glorifies it." The reader should also consult Huxley's Man's Place in Nature, and Mivart's Man and Apes.