THE SKELETON OF APES AND OF MAN 247 



in the apes. The general shape and proportionate size 

 of the muscles of the leg in man give it a very different 

 appearance from that of the ape ; but there are no 

 muscles or bones present which are not found in the 

 apes. The beautiful outline and form of the human leg 

 and buttocks are directly the result of the increased 

 size of certain muscles used in maintaining the upright 

 position, and in the peculiarly human swing of the leg 

 in walking and running. Their beauty, like that of the 

 other specially human features which we consider beauti- 

 ful, depends upon the fact that their development, in due 

 proportion, is a necessary condition of efficiency, activity, 

 and strength in movements and attitudes which have 

 gradually been acquired by man, and distinguish him 

 from the apes. Our admiration for them is a sort of 

 self-love, a worship of an ideal of efficiency and balance 

 which is specifically " human," and is more or less fully 

 realized in every individual. Probably sexual selection 

 has had a large share in thus moulding the human form. 

 The apes do not present the development of the gluteal 

 region characteristic of man, and the muscles of both the 

 arms and legs in them are, though very powerful, less 

 fleshy and more " stringy " than those of man. There 

 is, indeed, a difference of " quality " in the muscles of 

 apes and men, especially civilized men, which needs 

 investigation by the microscopist and experimental 

 physiologist. 



Though we necessarily compare man with the highest 

 existing apes, we must not suppose that the man-like 

 ape from which the earliest ape-like men developed was 

 in fact a gorilla or a chimpanzee. The survival of the 

 gorilla and chimpanzee at this day necessarily implies 

 that they were not the actual ancestral forms which 

 became modified and superseded in the course of man's 



