The naturalist who has in our time most interested himself in the classification of vertebrata, Prince Charles Bonaparte, gives his own opinion as follows:--“Man may be considered, in one point of view, as constituting one single family; in another, as constituting an entire kingdom.” But he also adds that in this second case, “the characteristics are no longer in harmony with the rest of the system.” In fact, we can hardly at the same time admit both the general principles of classification, as followed at the present day, and also the human kingdom. One out of these two things must fall to the ground. The system of classifying mammalia,--adopted in all its uniformity by the two Geoffroys, the Cuviers, De Blainville, and Owen,--cannot be maintained without involving mankind. If man were a kingdom by himself, this classification would be a false one; for ought we not then, at least, to create a cetaceous kingdom, a bird kingdom, etc.? As for ourselves, the problem has been already solved, and we hesitated to come into collision with this new inconsistency. Harmony is the necessary condition of every really natural system. We cannot arbitrarily give a different value to the same characteristics; and, reciprocally, the divisions of the same order ought necessarily to agree with characteristics of the same value. It has been thought necessary, at least, to create for mankind one of those great divisions into which the mammalia are divided. An Order of _Bimana_ has been created. We do not hesitate to say that this was a purely theoretical creation; and we will go even farther, we declare it could only be produced in a country where coverings for the feet are in daily and universal wear. We must not go into the midst of our great cities if we wish to study the _zoological_ characteristics of man. Is there any reason for the Order of _Bimana_ when we consider man in his state of nature? is it “the immediate and necessary results of natural analogies, respectively valued according to their degree?” “No!” was the answer of Étienne Geoffroy, in his eloquent pages, “this Order must be abolished.”[98] É. Geoffroy saw workmen in the bazaars at Cairo employ their great toe for numberless prehensile uses. A Nubian, or a negro on horseback, generally takes the stirrup-leather between his great toe and the others; all the Abyssinian cavalry ride in this manner.[99] If the fact reported by Bory de Saint-Vincent about the rosin-makers of the Landes is not confirmed,[100] we have at least seen the Barabras Nubians ascend the great yard of the Nile _dahabiehs_ by seizing with the great toe the rope underneath them[101] which supports the sail.