26 Dr. Kneeland on the Skeleton of the Great Chimpanzee. 



The lumbar vertebrse are only three in number, — less than in 

 any of the higher mammals ; but taking in the dorsals, there is in 

 both the same number as in Man. The bodies are larger and 

 thicker than in Man ; the vertical diameter is less anteriorly than 

 posteriorly, making an anterior concavity, and showing that the 

 erect position is as unnatural for this as for the other Quadru- 

 mana. 



The sacrum, which has a slight lateral deviation to the left, 

 consists of eight bones, firmly joined together, the intervertebral 

 spaces being obliterated except between the first and second. 

 The first bone resembles very much a lumbar vertebra, and on 

 one side its transverse process, though bearing the upper portion 

 of the articulating surface for the right ilium, is not connected 

 with the lateral portion of the sacral wing below ; on the left side 

 the bony union is complete, and the spinous process is conti- 

 nuous without interruption or foramen with the median sacral 

 crest ; this crest at its upper portion is 2 inches high, gradually 

 decreasing, and lost entirely on the sixth bone, where also the 

 sacral canal terminates. The sacrum is long and narrow, having 

 a very decided concavity anteriorly. The articulating surface for 

 the ilium is confined to the first three vertebrae. Whether any 

 coccygeal vertebrae are anchylosed in the sacrum it is not easy to 

 say; from the uncommonly large number of sacral vertebrae, viz. 

 eight, it would seem probable that these also include the coccyx ; 

 the terminal bone ends in a rounded projection, which has some- 

 what the appearance of an articulating surface. In Dr. W. Lewises 

 description of a Gibbon (Boston Journal, vol. i. p. 35) it is stated 

 that the coccyx consisted of a single bone ; in our specimen this 

 single rudimentary coccyx may have been attached to the sacral 

 terminal surface. 



The bodies of the second and third cervical vertebrae incline 

 backwards ; the direction becomes perpendicular in the fourth, 

 and in the last three a little inclined forwards : at the upper 

 dorsal region the spine is slightly convex, in the lower dorsals 

 and lumbar concave; at the last lumbar and first sacral it is 

 again convex, and in the lowest portion again concave. The 

 whole number of vertebrae is 32, and possibly 33 ; the length of 

 the cervical, dorsal and lumbar regions is 22 inches : from this 

 it would appear that the spinal column is very nearly as long as 

 the human, which it also comes nearer to in its curves than any 

 of the Quadrumana. 



The pelvis departs widely from that of the Chimpanzee and 

 Orang, and approaches that of Man in the greater spread of the 

 ilium, its deep anterior concavity, and corresponding posterior 

 convexity, on which a well-marked longitudinal ridge indicates 

 the origin of the glutseus maximus ; and a fainter semicircular 



