90 THE RELATIONS OF MAN 



or less moveable bones, so small as to be insignificant, 

 constitute the coccyx or rudimentary tail. 



In the Gorilla, the vertebral column is similarly di- 

 vided into cervical, dorsal, lumbar, sacral and coccygeal 

 vertebrae, and the total number of cervical and dorsal ver- 

 tebras, taken together, is the same as in man ; but the 

 development of a pair of ribs to the first lumbar vertebra, 

 which is an exceptional occurrence in Man, is the rule in 

 the Gorilla ; and hence, as lumbar are distinguished from 

 dorsal vertebrae only by the presence . or absence of free 

 ribs, the seventeen " dorso-lumbar " vertebrae of the Go- 

 rilla are divided into thirteen dorsal and four lumbar, 

 while in Man they are twelve dorsal and five lumbar. 



Not only, however, does Man occasionally possess thir- 

 teen pair of ribs,* but the Gorilla sometimes has fourteen 

 pairs, while an Orang-Utan skeleton in the Museum of the 

 Royal College of Surgeons has twelve dorsal and five lum- 

 bar vertebrae, as in Man. Cuvier notes the same number 

 in a Hylobates. On the other hand, among the lower 

 Apes, many possess twelve dorsal aud six or seven lumbar 

 vertebrae ; the Douroucouli has fourteen dorsal and eight 

 lumbar, and a Lemur {Stenops tardigradus) has fifteen 

 dorsal and nine lumbar vertebrae. 



The vertebral column of the Gorilla, as a whole, differs 

 from that of Man in the less marked character of its 

 curves, especially in the slighter convexity of the lumbar 

 region. Nevertheless, the curves are present, and are 

 quite obvious in young skeletons of the Gorilla and Chim- 



* " More than once," Bays Peter Camper, " have I met with more than six 

 lumbar vertebra? in man. . . . Once I found thirteen ribs and four lum- 

 bar vertebrae." Fallopius noted thirteen pair of ribs and only four lumbar 

 vertebrae , and Eustachius once found eleven dorsal vertebrae and six lumbar 

 vertebrae. — ' (Euvres de Pierre Camper,' T. 1, p. 42. As Tyson states, his 

 1 Pygmie ' had thirteen pair of ribs and five lumbar vertebrae. The question 

 of the curves of the spinal column in the Apes requires further investigation. 



