78 



framework, the comparative anatomist would first glance at the 

 more obvious characters; and such, indeed, as would be given by 

 the entire animal. The characteristics of the limbs in man are 

 their near equality of length, but the lower limbs are the longest. 

 The arms in man reach to below the middle of the thigh ; in the 

 gorilla they nearly attain the knee ; in the chimpanzee they reach 

 below the knee ; in the orang they reach the ankle ; in the siamang 

 they reach the sole ; in most gibbons the whole palm can be Applied 

 to the ground without the trunk being bent forward beyond its 

 naturally inclined position on the legs. These gradational dif- 

 ferences coincide with other characters determining the relative 

 proximity of the apes compared with man. In no ouadrumaiia 

 does the humerus exceed the ulna so much in length as in man ; 

 only in the very highest and most anthropoid, viz. the gorilla and 

 chimpanzee, does it exceed the ulna at all in length; in all the rest, 

 as in the lower quadrupeds, the fore-arm is longer than the arm. 



The humerus, in the gorilla, though less long, compared with 

 the ulna, than in man, is longer than in the chimpanzee ; in the 

 orang it is shorter than the ulna ; in the siamang and other gibbons 

 it is much shorter, the peculiar length of arm in those ' long-armed 

 apes' is chiefly due to the excessive length of the antibrachial bones. 



The difference in the length of the upper limbs, as compared 

 with the trunk, is but little between man and the gorilla. The 

 elbow-joint in the gorilla, as the arm hangs down, is opposite the 

 'labrurn. ilii,' the wrist opposite the 'tuber ischii;' it is rather lower 

 down in the chimpanzee; is opposite the knee-joint in the orang; 

 and opposite the ankle-joint in the siamang. 



Man's perfect hand is one of his peculiar physical characters; 

 that perfection is mainly due to the extreme differentiation of the 

 first from the other four digits, and its concomitant power of 

 opposing them as a perfect thumb. An opposable thumb is present 

 in the hand of most Quadrumana, but is usually a small appendage 

 compared with that of man. It is relatively largest in the gorilla. 

 In this ape the thumb reaches to a little beyond the base of the 

 first phalanx of the fore-finger; it does not reach to the end of the 

 metacarpal bone of the fore-finger in the chimpanzee, orang, or 

 gibbon; it is relatively smallest in the last tailless ape. In man 

 the thumb extends to or beyond the middle of the first phalanx of 

 the fore-finger. The philosophical zoologist will see great signi- 

 ficance in the results of this comparison. Only in the gorilla and 

 chimpanzee are the carpal bones eight in number, as in man; in 



