as a biting organ. The term highest, however, includes increased complexity as well as simplification, the two series of modifications being interwoven to form a more efficient organism. It cannot be doubted that the increased complexity of the brain of mammals raises them in the scale, as does also the complex and delicately adjusted series of bonelets which form the organ for the transmission of sound to the internal ear. The separation of the cavity containing the lungs, and the investment of the partition so formed with muscular fibres, renders the action of the lungs more effective; and there are other instances among the Mammalia of greater complexity of the various parts and organs of the body when compared with lower forms, which help to justify the term "highest" generally applied to these creatures.
Complexity and finish of structure are often accompanied by large size; and the Mammalia are, on the whole, larger than any other Vertebrates, and also contain the most colossal species. The huge Dinosaurs of the Mesozoic epoch, though among the largest of animals, are exceeded by the Whales; and the latter group includes the mightiest creature that exists or has ever existed, the eighty-five-feet-long Sibbald's Rorqual. Confining ourselves rigidly to facts, and avoiding all theorising on the possible relation between complexity and nicety of build and the capacity for increase in bulk, it is plain from the history of more than one group of mammals that increase in bulk accompanies specialisation of structure. The huge Dinocerata when compared with the ancestral Pantolambda teach us this, as do many similar examples. Within the mammalian group, as in the case of other Vertebrates, difference of size has a certain rough correspondence with difference of habitat. The Whales not only contain the largest of animals, but their average size is great; so too with the equally aquatic Sirenia and very aquatic Pinnipedia. Here the support offered by the water and the consequent decreased need for muscular power to neutralise the effects of gravity permit of an increase in bulk. Purely terrestrial animals come next; and finally arboreal, and, still more, "flying" mammals are of small size, since the maintenance of the position when moving and feeding needs enormous muscular effort.
The Mammals are more easily to be separated from the Vertebrates lying lower in the series than any of the latter are from each other in ascending order. A large number of char-
