Prof. Owen on the Gorilla. 387 



Pursuing the comparison through the complexities of the bony- 

 framework, he might first glance at the more obvious proportions ; 

 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 t» 

 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 differences coincide with 

 other characters determining the relative proximity to Man of the 

 apes compared. In no Quadrumana does the humerus exceed the 

 ulna so much in length as in Man ; only in the most anthropoid, 

 viz. the Gorilla and Chimpanzee, does it exceed the ulna at all in 

 length ; in 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 " labrum 

 ilii," the wrist opposite the " tuber ischii ;" it is rather lower down 

 in the Chimpanzee ; it is opposite the knee-joint in the Orang ; it is 

 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 oppo- 

 sing them as a perfect thumb. An opposable thumb is present in 

 the hand of most Quadrumana^ but is usually a small appendage com- 

 pared 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 meta- 

 carpal 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 significance in the 

 results of this comparison. Only in the Gorilla and Chimpanzee are 

 the carpal bones eight in number, as in man ; in the Orangs and 

 Gibbons they are nine in number, as in the tailed monkeys. 



The scapulae are broader in the Gorilla than in the Chimpanzee, 

 Orang, or long-armed apes ; they come nearer to the proportions of 

 that bone in Man. But a more decisive resemblance to the human 

 structure is presented by the iliac bones. In no other ape than the 

 Gorilla do they bend forward, so as to produce a pelvic concavity ; 

 nor are they so broad in proportion to their length in any ape as in 

 the Gorilla. In both the Chimpanzee and Orang the iliac bones are 



25* 



