1855.] Anthropoid Apes, and their relations to Man. 35 



series, viz., a complete clavicle, the antibrachial bones so adjusted 

 as to permit the rotatory movements of pronation and supination, 

 as well as of flexion and extension ; manifesting those characters 

 which adapt them for the manifold application of that most perfect 

 and beautiful of prehensile instruments, the hand. The scapula 

 is broad, with the glenoid articulation turned outwards ; the clavi- 

 cles are bent in a slight sigmoid flexure ; the humerus exceeds in 

 length the bones of the fore-arm. The carpal bones are eight in 

 number. The thumb is developed far beyond any degree exhibited 

 by the highest quadrumana, and is the most perfect opposing digit 

 in the animal creation. The skull is distinguished by the enormous 

 expansion of the brain case ; by the restricted growth of the bones 

 of the face, especially of the jaws, in relation to the small, equally- 

 developed teeth ; and by the early obliteration of the maxillo- 

 intermaxillary suture. To balance the head upon the neck-bone, 

 we find the condyles of the occiput brought forward almost to the 

 centre of the base of the skull, resting upon the two cups of the 

 atlas, so that there is but a slight tendency to incline forwards when 

 the balancing action of the muscle ceases, as when the head nods 

 during sleep, in an upright posture. Instead of the strongly de- 

 veloped occipital crest, we find a great development of true mastoid 

 processes advanced nearer to the middle of the sides of the basis 

 cranii, and of which there is only the rudiment in the gorilla. The 

 upper convexity of the cranium is not interrupted by any sagittal 

 or parietal cristas. The departure from the archetype, in the hu- 

 man skull, is most conspicuous, in the vast expanse of the neural 

 spines of the three chief cranial vertebrae, viz., occipital, parietal, 

 and frontal. 



The Professor next entered upon the question, " To what extent 

 does man depart from the typical character of his species ? " With 

 regard to the kind and amount of variety in mankind, we find, 

 propagable and characteristic of race, a difference of stature, a 

 difference in regard to colour, difference in both colour and texture 

 of the hair, and certain differences in the osseous framework. With 

 regard to stature, the Bushmen of South Africa and the natives of 

 Lapland exhibit the extreme of diminution, ranging from four to 

 five feet. Some of the Germanic races and the Patagonian Indians 

 exhibit the opposite extreme, ranging from six to seven feet. The 

 medium size prevails generally throughout the races of mankind. 

 With reference to the characteristics of colour, which are extreme, 

 we have now opportunities of knowing how much that character is 

 the result of the influence of climate. We know it more particu- 

 larly by that most valuable mode of testing such influences which 

 we have from the peculiarity of the Jewish race. For 1800 years 

 that race has been dispersed into different latitudes and climates, 

 and they have preserved themselves most distinct from any inter- 

 mixture with the other races of mankind. There are some Jews 

 still lingering in the valleys of the Jordan, having been oppressed 



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