[Illustration: FIG. I.--Represents the Gilled Amphibians (Soyobranchia). The Axolotl (Siredon pisciforme), after Tegetmeier. The ordinary form with persistent branchiæ.] [Illustration: FIG. II.--Proteus Anguinus. Europe.--_Orton._] [Illustration: FIG. III.--Represents the Tailed Amphibians (Soyura). Great Water-Newt (Triton cristatus), after _Bell._] From the marsupialia originated a most interesting small group of semi-apes (prosimiæ), for they are the primary forms of genuine apes and consequently of man. They developed out of handed or ape-footed marsupials (pedumana), of rat-like appearance, by the formation of a placenta, the loss of the marsupium and the marsupial bones, and by the higher development of the commissures of the brain. The still-living short-footed semi-ape (brachytarsi), especially the muki, indie and lori, possess possibly a faint resemblance. Out of the semi-apes developed two classes of genuine apes; but as the narrow-nosed or catarrhini class are the only ones related to man, the others will not be considered. These narrow-nosed apes originated by the transformation of the jaw, and by the claws on the toes changing into nails. The still-living long-tail nose-apes and holy apes (semnopithecus) probably resembled the oldest ancestors of this group. The tailed apes by the loss of their tail and some of their hair covering, and by the excessive development of that portion of their brain above the facial portion of the skull, developed into the man-like apes (anthropoides)--such as the gorilla and chimpanzee of Africa, and the orang and gibbon of Asia. The human ancestors of this group existed during the miocene period. From the anthropoides developed the ape-like men (pithecanthropi) during the tertiary period. The speechless primæval men (alali), then, is the connecting link between the man-like apes and man. The fore-hand of the anthropoides became the human hand, their hinder-hand a foot for walking. They did not possess the articulate human language of words and the higher developments, as consciousness and the formation of ideas must have been very imperfect. Out of the pithecanthropi men developed genuine man, by the development of the animal language of sounds into a connected or articulate language of words--the brain also developed higher and higher. This transition took place, probably, at the beginning of the quaternary period, or possibly in the tertiary.