DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS OP MAN. 51 



after another of the skeleton of Man with the corresponding parts of the 

 skeleton of the higher apes, we are led in every instance to the same con- 

 clusion. It is quite true that between Man and those Apes which approach 

 him most closely, there is a wider hiatus than we usually meet with between 

 the members of the Quadrumanous series, which as a whole presents a re- 

 markably gradational position between its higher and lower forms ; and the 

 existence of this hiatus has been used as an argument for ranking Man in a 

 distinct Order. But since, as we ascend that series, we witness a gradual 

 tendency towards the anthropoid form, and since in passing from the high- 

 est Apes to Man we only come somewhat abruptly upon the culmination of 

 that ascent without being led off in any other direction, it would be contrary 

 to the whole idea of Zoological classification to place Man in a distinct cate- 

 gory from them as regards his corporeal structure, whatever we may think 

 it right to do when we take his psychical constitution into account. 1 And 

 it is to be borne in mind that this hiatus like many similar gaps in our 

 classification of existing animals which have been filled up by the progress 

 of palseontological research may be simply due to that extinction of inter- 

 mediate forms which (there is constantly increasing reason to believe) has 

 taken place in past ages of the Earth's history, to an extent of which the 

 remains hitherto known to us afford but a very imperfect idea. That it may 

 not, be completely bridged over by such intermediate links, no one has any 

 right to affirm upon negative evidence only; more especially in the face of 

 the positive evidence afforded by the recent discovery of a very remarkable 

 fragment of a skull, which, while unquestionably Human, resembled that 

 of the Gorilla in the comparative lowuess of its vault, the smallness of its 

 capacity, and the extraordinary prominence of its superciliary ridges. 2 



83. The most characteristic peculiarity of the Human Myology, is the 

 great development of those muscles of the trunk and limbs, which contribute 

 to the maintenance of the erect posture. Thus, the gastrocnemii, and the 

 other muscles which tend to keep the leg erect upon the foot, form a much 

 more prominent " calf" than is seen either in the most anthropoid Apes, or in 

 any other animal. The soleus is attached to the tibia as well as to the fibula. 

 So, again, the extensors of the leg upon the thigh are much more powerful 

 than the flexors ; a character which is peculiar to Man. The glutsei, 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. Among the differences 

 in the attachment of individual muscles, it may be noticed that the "flexor 

 longus pollicis pedis" proceeds in Man to the great-toe alone, on which the 

 weight of the body is often supported ; whilst it is attached in the Chimpan- 

 zee and Orang to the three middle toes also. All four heads of the flexor 

 brevis digitorum pedis arise from the Calcaueum, and the second toe has 

 two dorsal iuterossei. The " latissimus dorsi " is destitute in Man of that 



1 "We meet with a similarly abrupt transition at the other extremity of the series, 

 in the Ckeiramys or Aye-aye ; an animal which Zoologists now agree to rank among 

 the Quadrumana in virtue of its general Lemurine affinities, although in dentition 

 and several other particulars it bears so strong a resemblance to the Rodents as to 

 have been placed among them hy Cuvier. 



2 See Natural History Review', vol. i, 1861, p. 155; and Prof. Huxley " On some 

 Fossil Remains of Man," in his Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature, 1863. 

 The anatomical peculiarities of Man are very completely given by Prof. Huxley, in 

 his Anatomy of Vertebrated Animals, 1871, "p. 488, et seq. ; and the student will find 

 an admirable exposition of the structural resemblances and differences between Man 

 and Apes in St. George Mivart's little work, entitled Man and Apes, 1873. In 

 this work Mr. Mivart strongly opposes the doctrine of the descent of Man and Apes 

 from a common ancestor. 



