The great increase in our knowledge of animals which has taken place since
the volume on Monkeys was published in "Jardine's Naturalist's Library"
some sixty years ago, cannot be better illustrated than by the fact that
our excellent contributor, Dr. H. O. Forbes, has found it impossible to
compress that knowledge into a single volume of the present issue. There
is, moreover, no Museum which contains such a complete series of skins of
the Primates, as to render a perfect "monograph" of the Order possible. Dr.
Forbes has endeavoured in these volumes to bring the subject up to date,
and has devoted some years of study to the two which now appear under his
name, and he has had the great advantage of having seen many of the species
of which these volumes treat, in a state of nature. If diligent research
and patient work, combined with a sound anatomical knowledge and an
acquaintance with many species of Monkeys in their natural habitat, avail
anything, then these volumes should present to the student a more concise
epitome of the characteristics of the Primates than any other essay yet
offered to the public. It has been found impossible to reproduce any of the
plates in the old "Naturalist's Library" of Jardine. They would have
formed, with appropriate inscriptions, a very good instalment of a series
of "Comic Natural History" volumes, as they were, in fact, nothing but a
set of extraordinary caricatures of Monkeys. I have, therefore, again to
acknowledge the liberality of the publishers, in adopting my suggestion
that a perfectly new set of illustrations should be prepared. These have
been executed by Mr. J. G. Keulemans, with a result, I hope, that will
satisfy the reader.