72 ON THE PLACE OF MAN IN THE SCALE OF BEING. 



purposes, which could not be possibly answered, if it were not completely 

 relieved from the necessity of bearing the weight of the body. This peculiar 

 conformation will be subsequently considered. 



56. The other parts of the Human body concerned in locomotion are 

 exactly adapted to the peculiar construction of the skeleton. The tibia is 

 kept erect upon the foot by the very powerful muscles which are attached to 

 the heel and form the calf of the leg, a prominence observed in no other 

 animal in nearly the same degree. The flexor longus pollicis pedis, which is 

 attached in the Chimpanzee and Orang to the three middle toes, proceeds in 

 man exclusively to the great toe, on which the weight of the body is often 

 supported. The extensors of the leg upon the thigh are much more power- 

 ful than the flexors, an arrangement seen in no other animal. The glutaei, by 

 which the pelvis is kept erect upon the thigh, are of far greater size than is 

 elsewhere seen. The superior power of the muscles tending to draw the 

 head and spine backwards, has been already referred to. In the general form 

 of the trunk, there is a considerable difference between Man and most other 

 Mammalia. His chest is large, but is flattened in front, and expanded late- 

 rally, so that its transverse diameter is greater than its antero-posterior ; a 

 peculiarity in which only the most Man-like monkeys partake. His sternum 

 is short and broad ; and there is a considerable distance between the lower 

 ribs and the ilia, in consequence of the small number of ribs, and the length 

 of the lumbar portion of the vertebral column. The viscera in this space, 

 which in the horizontal position would be but insufficiently held up by the 

 abdominal muscles, are, in the erect attitude, securely supported by the ex- 

 panded pelvis. From all these facts, it is an indisputable conclusion, that the 

 erect attitude and biped progression are natural to Man ; and we must regard 

 as in great degree fabulous, all those histories of supposed wild men, who, it 

 has been said, were found in woods, dumb, hairy, and crawling on all-fours. 

 The most elaborate investigation* of the structure of the anthropoid Apes, 

 and the fullest acquaintance with their habits, concur in proving, that their 

 movements are not easy or agile, unless they employ all their limbs for the 

 support of their bodies. 



57. The name Bimana is the most appropriate that could be found, for an 

 order constituted by the Human species only ; since Man alone is two-handed. 

 " That," says Cuvier, " which constitutes the hand, properly so called, is the 

 faculty of opposing the thumb to the other ringers, so as to seize the most 

 minute objects, a faculty which is carried to its highest degree of perfec- 

 tion in Man, in whom the whole anterior extremity is free, and can be em- 

 ployed in prehension." Some naturalists refuse the term hand to the extremi- 

 ties of the monkey tribe, preferring to call them graspers ; for it is certainly 

 true, that, although usually possessing an opposable thumb, they are destitute 

 of the power of performing many of those actions which we regard as most 

 characteristic of the hand. Such actions are chiefly dependent on the size 

 and power of the thumb ; which is much more developed in Man than it is 

 even 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 approach 

 Man, the thumb is so short and weak, and the fingers so long and slender, 

 that their tips can scarcely be brought into opposition, and can never be op- 

 posed in near contact with each other, with any degree 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 



* Soo especially Mr. Owen's paper on the Chimpanzee and the Orang Outan in the Zoolo- 

 gical Transactions, vol. i. 



