VARIETIES OF MANKIND. 



1295 



of these four hands are adapted to the va- 

 riety of actions of which those of man are 

 capable, and they are all in some degree re- 

 quired for support ; so that whilst in the 

 higher forms of the Quadrumanous order, the 

 extremities present a certain approximation 

 in structure to those of man, in the lower 

 they gradually assimilate to the ordinary 

 quadrupedal type. " That," says Cuvier, 

 " which constitutes the hand, properly so 

 called, is the faculty of opposing the thumb 

 to the other fingers, so as to seize upon the 

 most minute objects ; a faculty which is car- 

 ried to its highest degree of perfection in Man, 

 in whom the whole anterior extremity is free, 

 and can be employed in prehension." The 

 peculiar prehensile power possessed by man is 

 chiefly dependent upon the size and power of 

 the thumb ; which is more developed in Man 

 than it is in the highest apes. The thumb of 

 the human hand can be brought into exact 

 opposition to the extremities of all the fingers, 

 whether singly or in combination ; whilst in 

 those Quadrumana which most nearly ap- 

 proach man, the thumb is so short, and the 

 fingers so much elongated, that their tips can 

 scarcely be brought into opposition ; and the 

 thumb and fingers are so weak, that they can 

 never be opposed to each other with any de- 

 gree of force. Hence, although admirably 

 adapted for clinging round bodies of a certain 

 size, such as the small branches of trees, &c., 

 the extremities of the Quadrumana can nei- 

 ther seize very minute objects with such pre- 

 cision, nor support large ones with such 

 firmness, as are essential to the dexterous per- 

 formance of a variety of operations, for which 

 the hand of Man is admirably adapted. There 

 is much truth, then, in Sir C. Bell's remark, 

 that " we ought to define the hand as belong- 

 ing exclusively to man." There is in him, 

 what we observe in none of the Mammalia 

 which approach him in other respects, a com- 

 plete distinction in the functional character 

 of the anterior and posterior extremities ; the 

 former being adapted for prehension alone, 

 and the latter for support and progression 

 alone ; and thus each function is performed 

 in a much higher degree of perfection, than it 

 can be when two such opposite purposes 

 have to be united. For not only is the hand 

 of man a much more perfect prehensile in- 

 strument than that of the orang or chim- 

 panzee, but his foot is a much more perfect 

 organ of support and progression than theirs, 

 being adapted to maintain his body in an 

 erect position, alike during rest and whilst in 

 motion, an attitude which even the most 

 anthropoid apes can only sustain for a short 

 time, and with an obvious effort. The arm 

 of the higher apes has as wide a range of 

 motion as that of man, so far as its articu- 

 lation is concerned ; but it is only when the 

 animal is in the erect attitude, that the limb 

 can have free play. Thus the structure of the 

 whole frame must he conformable to that of 

 the hand, in the way that we find it to be in 

 man, in order that this organ may be advan- 

 tageously applied to the purposes which it is 



adapted to perform. But it cannot be said 

 with truth (as some have maintained) that Man 

 owes his superiority to his hand alone ; for 

 without the mind by which it is directed, and 

 the senses by which its operations are guided, 

 it would be a comparatively valueless in- 

 strument. Man's elevated position is due to 

 the superiority of his mind and of its ma- 

 terial instruments conjointly; for if destitute 

 of either, the human race must be speedily ex- 

 tinguished altogether, or reduced to a very 

 subordinate grade of existence. 



The next series of characters to he con- 

 sidered, are those by which man is adapted to 

 the erect attitude. On examining his cra- 

 nium, we remark that the occipital condyles 

 are so placed, that a perpendicular dropped 

 from the centre of gravity of the head would 

 nearly fall between them, so as to be within 

 the base on which it rests upon the spinal 

 column. The foramen magnum is not placed 

 in the centre of the skull, but just behind it ; 

 so that the greater specific gravity of the pos- 

 terior part of the head, which is entirely filled 

 with solid matter.iscompensated by the greater 

 length of the anterior part, which contains 

 many cavities. There is, indeed, a little over- 

 compensation, which gives a slight prepon- 

 derance to the front of the head, so that it 

 drops forwards and downwards, when all the 

 muscles are relaxed ; but the muscles which 

 are attached to the occiput are larger and far 

 more numerous than those in front of the 

 condyles, so that they are evidently intended 

 to counteract this disposition ; and we find, 

 accordingly, that we can keep up the head for 

 a whole day, with so slight and involuntary 

 effort, that no fatigue is produced by it. More- 

 over, the plane of the foramen magnum, and 

 the surfaces of the condyles, have a nearly 

 horizontal direction when the head is upright ; 

 and thus the weight of the skull is laid verti- 

 cally upon the top of the vertebral column. 

 If these arrangements be compared with those 

 which prevail in other Mammalia, it will be 

 found that the foramen and condyles are placed 

 in the latter much nearer the back of the 

 head, and that their plane is more oblique. 

 Thus, whilst the foramen magnum is situated, 

 in Man, just behind the centre of the base of 

 the skull, it is found in the Chimpanzee and 

 Orang to occupy the middle of the poste- 

 rior third ; and as we descend through the 

 scale of Mammalia, we observe that it gra- 

 dually approaches the back of the skull, and 

 at last comes nearly into the line of its longi'.st 

 diameter, as we see in the Horse. So the 

 angle of inclination which the condyles make 

 with the horizontal is very small in Man, but 

 rises in the Orang to 37 ; whilst in the Horse 

 their plane is vertical, making the angle 90. 

 If, therefore, the natural posture of man had 

 been horizontal, the plane of his condyles 

 would be brought, like that of the horse, 

 into the vertical position ; and the head, 

 instead of being nearly balanced upon the 

 summit of the vertebral column, would hang 

 at the end of the neck, so that its whole 

 weight would have to be supported by some 



