ABSTRACT
The omissions in the discussion of the classification and phylogeny of the Primates are unnecessary. Partly they are the results of too narrow a specialization in primate studies, for natural interest in human structure, and the difficulties of observing living animals, have combined to lay far too heavy an emphasis, in phylogenetic discussion, on comparative morphology. The importance, whether it is real or unreal, attached to the question of man’s evolution, prevents any separation of primate classification from primate phylogeny. Naturally, therefore, a profound difference in point of view often exists between the human anatomists and the zoologists who take up the studies of the phylogeny of man and the classification of the Primates. The zoologist is warned against constituting a species with few individuals and on a small number of characters. Arbitrary though the creation of new genera and species may be, there can be little justification for the proposal.
