256 ON THE RELATIONS OF MAN 



hand, with Man, and on the other hand, with the rest of the 

 Primates,* I shall select the latter (so far as its organiza- 

 tion is known) as a brute now so celebrated in prose 

 and verse, that all must have heard of him, and have 

 formed some conception of his appearance. I shall take 

 up as many of the most important points of difference 

 between man and this remarkable creature, as the space 

 at my disposal will allow me to discuss, and the necessi- 

 ties of the argument demand ; and I shall inquire into 

 the value and magnitude of these differences, when placed 

 side by side with those which separate the Gorilla from 

 other animals of the same order. 



In the general proportions of the body and limbs there 

 is a remarkable difference between the Gorilla and Man, 

 which at once strikes the eye. The Gorilla's brain-case 

 is smaller, its trunk larger, its lower limbs shorter, its 

 upper limbs longer in proportion than those of Man. 



I find that the vertebral column of a full-grown Gorilla, 

 in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, measures 

 27 inches along its anterior curvature, from the upper 

 edge of the atlas, or first vertebra of the neck, to the 

 lower extremity of the sacrum ; that the arm, without the 

 hand, is 31 \ inches long; that the leg, without the foot, 

 is 26 \ inches long ; that the hand is 9f inches long ; the 

 foot 11 J inches long. 



In other words, taking the length of the spinal column 

 as 100, the arm equals 115, the leg 96, the hand 36, and 

 the foot 41. 



In the skeleton of a male Bosjesman, in the same collec- 

 tion, the proportions, by the same measurement, to the 

 spinal column, taken as 100, are the arm 78, the leg 110, 

 the hand 26, and the foot 32. In a woman of the same 

 race the arm is 83, and the leg 120, the hand and foot 

 remaining the same. In a European skeleton I find the 

 arm to be 80, the leg 117, the hand 26, the foot 35. 



Thus the leg is not so different as it looks at first sight, 

 in its proportions to the spine in the Gorilla and in the 

 Man being very slightly shorter than the spine in the 

 former, and between A and \ longer than the spine in 

 the latter. The foot is longer and the hand much longer 

 in the Gorilla ; but the great difference is caused by the 



* We are not at present thoroughly acquainted with the brain of 

 the Gorilla, and therefore, in discussing cerebral characters, I shall 

 take that of the Chimpanzee as my highest term among the Apes. 



