DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF MAN. 47 



Thus in the Troglodytes gorilla, these bones are not only remarkable for their 

 prominence, but also for their upward extension round the nostrils, so that they 

 completely exclude the maxillary bones from their borders, and form the bases 

 of support for the nasal bones ; and although they coalesce with the maxillaries 

 at and near the alveolar portion, they remain separate elsewhere. The lower 

 jaw of Man is remarkable for that prominence at its symphysis, which forms 

 the chin ; and although this, also, is least developed in the most prognathous 

 human crania, yet it is never so deficient as it is in the lower jaw of the Chim- 

 panzee and Orang. It is curious to observe that the skulls of the young of 

 Man and of the anthropoid Apes resemble one another much more than do those 

 of the adults ; each tending to diverge, in its advance towards full development, 

 from a type which seemed almost similar in both. It is only after their second 

 dentition, that the anthropoid Apes present those cranial characters which pecu- 

 liarly tend to degrade them towards the truly quadrupedal type ; and in the 

 Human subject we see that in the advance from childhood to adult age, there 

 is a progressive enlargement of the face, in proportion to the' capacity of the 

 cranial cavity. 1 



8. The great size of the cranial portion of the skull in Man, as compared 

 with the facial, produces a marked difference between his facial angle, and that 

 of even the highest Quadrumana. According to Camper, who first applied this 

 method of measurement, the facial angle of the average of European skulls is 

 80, whilst in the ideal heads of the Grecian gods it is increased to 90 ; on 

 the other hand, in the skull of a Kalmuck he found it to be 75 ; and in that 

 of a Negro only 70 ; and applying the same system of measurement to the 

 skulls of Apes, he found them to range from 64 to 60. But these last mea- 

 surements were all taken from young skulls, in which the forward extension of 

 the jaws, which takes place on the second dentition, had not yet occurred. In 

 the adult Chimpanzee, as we learn from the measurements of Prof. Owen, 

 the facial angle is no more than 35, and in the adult Orang only 30 ; so that 

 instead of the Negro being nearer to the Ape than to the European, as Camper's 

 estimate would make him, the interval between the most degraded Human races 

 and the most elevated Quadrumana is vastly greater than between the highest 

 and the lowest forms of humanity. It must be borne in mind that the facial 

 angle is so much affected by the degree of prominence of the jaws, that it can 

 never afford any certain information concerning the elevation of the forehead 

 and the capacity of the cranium ; all that it can in any degree serve to indicate, 

 being the relative proportion between the facial and the cranial parts of the 

 skull. 



9. The most characteristic peculiarity of the Human Myology, is the great 

 development of those muscles of the trunk and limbs which contribute to the 

 maintenance of the erect posture. Thus, the gastrocnemii, and the other mus- 

 cles which tend to keep the leg erect upon the foot, form a much more promi- 

 nent " calf than is seen either in the most anthropoid Apes, or in any other 

 animal. So, again, the extensors of the leg upon the thigh are much more 

 powerful than the flexors; a character which is peculiar to man. The glutsei, 

 by which the pelvis is kept erect upon the thigh, are of far greater size than is 

 elsewhere seen. The superior power of the muscles tending to draw the head 

 and spine backwards, has been already referred to. Among the differences in 

 the attachment of individual muscles, it may be noticed that the flexor longus 

 pollicis pedis proceeds in Man to the great toe alone, on which the weight of 

 the body is often supported j whilst it is attached in the Chimpanzee and Orang 



1 See Prof. Owen's Papers on the Anatomy of the Orang and Chimpanzee, in the " Zoo- 

 logical Transactions," vols. i. and iii. ; and Prof. Vrolik, in the Art. Quadrumana, in the 

 "Cyclopaedia of Anatomy and Physiology," vol. iv. 



