CHARACTERS OF MAN. 157 



has been more than three feet high ; and most have been 

 several inches under that height. The individual brought 

 to England by Mr. Abel, and now at Exeter Change, is 

 thirty-one inches *. Of eight seen by Camper f, none ex- 

 ceeded two feet and a half (Rhynland measure) : from ob- 

 serving the state of the teeth, and progress of ossification, 

 and estimating, according to the human subject, the addi- 

 tions which the stature might be expected to receive, he 

 thinks that their adult height may be set down at four feet 

 of the same measure. F. Cuvier J makes it considerably 

 less. Yet they are spoken of, on the faith of travellers, as 

 being five or six feet high, or even more : what is said of 

 their erect gait, and many other particulars, is probably of 

 equal accuracy. 



Tyson's chimpanse measured twenty-six inches from the 

 vertex to the heel || . 



The great length of the upper limbs, the predominance 

 of the fore-arm over the upper-arm, the shortness of the 

 lower limbs, and the great length of the hands and feet, are 

 other striking characters of the monkey kind. 



The span of the extended arms in man equals the height 

 of the body : it is nearly double that measure in the an- 

 thropo-morphous monkeys. Our upper-arm is longer than 

 the fore-arm by two or three inches ; in the last mentioned 

 animals, the fore-arm is the longest. In us the hip-joint 

 divides the body equally : the lower extremity is less than 

 half the height of the body in monkeys. The proportion of 

 the hand and foot to the body is much greater in them than 

 in us ; the excess arising from increase in the length of the 

 phalanges. That all these circumstances are very suitable 

 to the climbing habits of the monkey- race, is too obvious to 

 require particular elucidation. 



In the following table, I have arranged in parallel lines the 

 dimensions of some parts of a male skeleton, of the orang- 



* Journey in China; 322. + CEuvrcs ; i. 51. 



X Jnnalcsdu Museum; xvi, 51. || Anat. of a Pigmy; 15. 



