TO THE ERECT POSTURE. 215 



quate strength. In proportion to the trunk, the pelvic 

 limbs are longer than in any other animal; they even 

 exceed those of the kangaroo, and are peculiar for the 

 superior length of the femur, 65, and for the capacity of 

 this bone to be brought, when the leg is extended, into 

 the same line with the tibia, 66] the fibula, 67, is a dis- 

 tinct bone. The inner condyle of the femur is longer 

 than the outer one, so that the shaft inclines a little out- 

 wards to its upper end, and joins a neck longer than in 

 other animals, and set on at a very open angle. The 

 weight of the body, received by the round heads of the 

 thigh-bones, is thus transferred to a broader base, and its 

 support in the upright posture facilitated. The pelvis is 

 modified so as to receive and sustain better the abdominal 

 viscera, and to give increased attachment to the muscles, 

 especially the "glutei," which, comparatively small in 

 other mammals, are in man vastly developed to balance 

 the trunk upon the legs, and reciprocally to move these 

 upon the trunk. The great breadth and anterior conca- 

 vity of the ilium, 62, are characteristic modifications of 

 this bone in man. The pelvis is more capacious, the 

 tuberosity of the ischium is less prominent, and the sym- 

 physis pubis shorter, than in apes. The tail is reduced 

 to three or four stunted vertebras, anchylosed to form the 

 bone called "os coccygis." The five vertebra which coa- 

 lesce to form the sacrum, are of unusual breadth, and the 

 free or "true" vertebrae, that rest on the base of the sacral 

 wedge, gradually decrease in size to the upper part of the 

 chest; all the free vertebra, divided into five lumbar, 

 twelve dorsal, and seven cervical, are so articulated as to 

 describe three slight and graceful curves, the bend being 

 forward in the loins, backward in the chest, and forward 

 again in the neck. A soft elastic cushion, of "interver- 



