84 COilPARISONS OF STRUCTURE IN AKIIVIALS. 



In the cliimpauzee and orang, however, 

 there is, to a certain extent, a greater ap- 

 proximatioii to the human form and attitude ; 

 these animals can with some difficulty, and by 

 the aid of their long arms balancing them- 

 selves, proceed for a short distance in an erect 

 posture ; but the gait is an unsteady hobble— 

 they cannot walk with a firm step, nor run, 

 nor leap, like man. If we rigorously scrutinize 

 the hands of the ape tribe, we shall soon per- 

 ceive that they are instruments for grasping, 

 rather than organs structurally adapted for 

 tact and nice manipidation. They are narrow 

 and elongated ; the paun is flat, and in many 

 species— as, for example, the long-armed 

 gibbons of the Indian islands— linear, expand- 

 ing from the wrist to the base of the fingers. 

 In all, the thumb is short and feeble ; in none 

 is it a fair antagonist to the fingers, though, in 

 some species, it is better developed than in 

 others. In the gibbons, the short thumb is 

 divided down to the wrist, or nearly so, aiid is 

 not opposable to the fingers ; the ball formed 

 by the adductor muscles is very trifling, but 

 in the feet, or hinder graspers, the thumb 

 is greatly developed, and^ forms an equal 

 antagonist to the other toes conjointly — and, 



