224 THE ERECT POSITION IN MAN. 



LECTUEE III. 



THE ERECT POSITION IN MAN. 



1. Having endeavoured in my two previous lectures to lay- 

 before you a brief outline of those fundamental distinctions 

 between animality and humanity, which must be kept in view 

 in the discussion of every anthropological question, I now 

 proceed to the consideration of certain features which essen- 

 tially distinguish the human body from that of an animal. 



2. I shall devote the present lecture to the illustration of 

 those human structural arrangements which fulfil the con- 

 ditions of that erect posture peculiar to man. 



3. Of the numerous attitudes in which man can sustain 

 his centre of gravity, on one or both limbs, I select as the 

 simplest form of the problem the normal or erect position, 

 properly so-called, introducing occasional illustrations of other 

 attitudes. The erect position is that in which the body is 

 placed when all the parts are arranged so as to occasion the 

 least amount of exertion. In it the spine is erect and the 

 eyes look horizontally forwards, the arms being pendulous. 

 It is the position in which the body is conceived to be placed 

 by the human anatomists in their descriptions. 



4 — The Vertebral Column. 



The human vertebral column is specially arranged for the 

 erect position in man, and presents the following peculiarities, 

 which constitute certain of those adjustments which collec- 

 tively provide for that position. 



a. In the normal position of the human body the axis of 



