Structure of Man and Apes 161 



new opossum. We should endeavour to ascertain, without seek- 

 ing either to magnify or diminish them, all the characters by 

 which our new mammal differed from the apes ; and if we 

 found that these were of less structural value than those which 

 distinguish certain members of the ape order from others uni- 

 versally admitted to be of the same order, we should un- 

 doubtedly place the newly discovered tellurian genus with 

 them." 



Ill pursuit of this method, aud taking the gorilla as 

 the type for immediate comparison with man, he passed 

 in review the various anatomical structures, shewing 

 that in every case man did not differ more from the 

 gorilla than that differed from other anthropoids. We 

 shall take a few examples of his method and results, re- 

 minding our readers, however, that Huxley carried his 

 comparisons into every important part of the anatomical 

 structure. 



There is no part of the skeleton so characteristic- 

 ally human as the bones which form the pelvis, or 

 bony girdle of the hips. The expanded haunch-bones 

 form a basin-like structure which affords support to 

 the soft internal viscera during the habitually upright 

 position, and gives .space for the attachment of the 

 very large muscles which help man to a.ssume and sup- 

 port that attitude. In the gorilla this region differs 

 considerably from that in man. The haunch-bones are 

 narrower and much shallower, so that they do not form 

 so convenient a supporting basin; they have much less 

 surface for the attachment of muscles. The gibbon, 

 however, differs more vastly from the gorilla than that 

 differs from man. The haunch-bones are flat and nar- 

 row, and totally devoid of any basin-like formation ; the 

 passage through the pelvis is long and narrow, and the 

 ischia have outwardly curved prominences, which, in 



