228 iVUG.E ErnXOLOGICAE, 



ground, and the same series of motion is repealed at each step. He has 

 therefore as many points of support and motion in his two feet as quad- 

 rupeds have in their four. This arrangement proves that he never could 

 have used more than two feet, because they are amply competent to all 

 the locomotion the body requires. This brings us to another point, viz. 

 Man and man alone has an erect stature. His peculiar claim to this 

 posture has been denied by certain naturalists, some of whom assert that 

 he possesses it in common with the monkeys, and others that it is an 

 unnatural, or rathei; an acquired posture. Both these assertions are un- 

 founded. Man could never have gone on all-fours, because (in addition 

 to tlie reason already assigned.) of the great disparity in the length of 

 his limbs. The lower limbs are so much the longest that the head 

 would be thrown into a dependant position. Infants invariably crawl 

 upon iheir hands and knees. In monkeys the upper limbs are as long, 

 and in some species twice as long as the lower, so as to touch the 

 ground when the animal is made to stand upright. Even if the limbs 

 were of equal length, the face in this attitude would be directed towards 

 the ground. In man, the plane of the surface by which the head is ar- 

 ticulated to the spine is nearly parallel with the axis of the orbit of the 

 eye. In quadrupeds they approach nearly to a right angle. To look 

 forward, requires that the spine in man should be perpendicular, and in 

 quadrupeds, nearly horizontal. Place a man on all-fours with his head 

 in its natural easy position on the spine, and his eyes will look directly 

 at the earth. Place a quadruped upright, and its eyes will be turned as 

 directly up to the zenith. In the inferior animals the spinous processes 

 of the vertebrae of the neck are long, and are connected to the head by 

 a strong, dense ligament which will keep it from drooping when the 

 muscles are relaxed and at rest. In man this provision is wanting. 

 Monkeys, on the other hand, are equally incapable of going erect. They 

 are never found in this attitude in nature, and those which have been 

 kept in Museums, were never able to preserve it long. Instead of plant- 

 ing the sole (or palm) firmly on the ground, they double up the fingers 

 and walk upon the outside of the hand in an awkward, shuffling man- 

 ner. The part which answers to the heel, does not touch the ground, 

 so that they want the full use of tiie lever formed by the bony plane be- 

 tween the heel and toe which is the principal agent in man's walking. 

 In the ordinary plates theOrangand Chimpanzee are represented, when in 

 the erect posture, as supporting themselves by a stick upon which they 

 lean to steady their uncertain steps. Their hips are narrow, and the 

 thigh-bones slender and weak, and not furnished with the firm, capacious 

 joint which enables them to support the weight of the body in man. 



