MAN. 



connections of effects and causes, boldly 

 regards the heavens, and can direct his 

 sight even into the starry regions. The 

 physical cause of this noble prerogative 

 will be found in the length and breadth 

 of the feet; in the length and strength 

 of the lower extremities; and in the num- 

 ber and size of the muscles, which extend 

 the trunk upon the lower limbs. (For a 

 more detailed account of this part of the 

 subject, see COMPARATIVE ANATOMY, 

 muscles.) 



The situation of the great occipital fora- 

 men is another circumstance depending 

 on the erect stature of man : and for an 

 account of this subject, we refer to the 

 same part of the article on comparative 

 anatomy, and also to that portion of it 

 which treats of comparative osteology. 



The structure of the thorax shews, that 

 man was not designed to go on ail-fours. 

 Quadrupeds, if they have long legs, have 

 the chest flattened at the sides, and keel- 

 shaped in front ; and they have no clavi- 

 cles, so that the front legs converge, and 

 fall under the chest, to 'support the front 

 of the body. Quadrupeds have also a 

 longer sternum, or a greater number of 

 ribs continued towards thecrista ilia, and 

 serving the purpose of supporting the ab- 

 dominal viscera in the horizontal position 

 of the trunk. These things are all differ- 

 ently arranged in the biped man. His 

 thorax is flattened before and behind ; 

 his shoulders widely separated from each 

 other by the clavicles ; his sternum short, 

 and his abdomen unfurnished with bony 

 parietes in a very large extent. These cir- 

 cumstances, with many others, which could 

 not fail to strike any body who attentive- 

 ly compared the human skeleton with 

 that of the long-legged quadrupeds, 

 shew how ill the human structure is 

 adapted to progression on four feet, which 

 eould not be otherwise than unsteady, 

 troublesome, and fatiguing, in the highest 

 degree. 



The manner in which the human pelvis 

 differs from that of all other animals, is a 

 further proof of what has been already 

 stated.- The broad expansion of the up- 

 per part of the ilia forms a firm basis for 

 the trunk ; the curvature of the sacrum, 

 and the inclination of the os coccygis for- 

 wards, which is a circumstance altogether 

 peculiar to the human pelvis, give to it a 

 capacity exceeding that of any other ani- 

 mal. In the orang-outang the upper part 

 of the ilium is narrow and elongated, 

 stretching upwards in the direction of the 

 spine ; the sacrum, flat and contracted, 



VOL, IV. 



continues in a straight line with the ver- 

 tebral column. 



The relation of the neighbouring soft 

 parts to the pelvis, deserves also to be 

 considered. The posterior surface of the 

 pelvis gives origin to the glut<ei muscles, 

 the external of which, exceeding in size 

 all others in the body, and covered by a 

 large proportion of fat, form the buttocks. 

 These fleshy and rounded prominences, 

 between which the anus is deeply hidden, 

 have always been considered, both by the 

 natural historian and the physiologist, as a 

 peculiar characteristic of man, particularly 

 distinguishing him from the simiae, which 

 have no buttocks at all. 



The curvature of the sacrum and os 

 coccygis gives rise to the particular di- 

 rection of the organs of generation, and 

 especially of the vagina ; that canal, 

 which, in the other female mammalia, 

 nearly follows the axis of the pelvis, be- 

 ing placed almost at right angles to that 

 axis in the woman ; and hence the pro- 

 cess of parturition becomes more difficult. 

 In consequence of this direction of the 

 vagina, the human female is not like that 

 of brutes, retromingent : and the same 

 circumstance will determine a point that 

 has been often agitated, concerning the 

 most natural position for the act of copu- 

 lation : " quibus ipsa modis tractetur 

 blanda voluptas." For although there 

 are many ways in which this rite may be 

 performed, the relation of the penis to 

 the vagina points out the ordinary method 

 as the most natural. 



From the erect stature of man arises 

 another very distinguishing prerogative ; 

 the most unconstrained use of his very 

 perfect hands So greatly does the con- 

 formation of these parts excel that of 

 other animals, that Anaxagoras was hence 

 induced to make an observation, which 

 Helvetius has again brought forwards in 

 our times, " that man is the wisest of 

 animals, because he possesses hands." 

 This indeed is too much ; yet Aristotle is 

 well justified in observing, that man alone 

 possesses hands really deserving that 

 name. The chief and most distinguishing 

 part of the hand, viz. the thumb, is short, 

 slender, and weak,even in the most anthro- 

 po-inorphous simiae; so that no other hand 

 but that of the human subject deserves 

 the name given to it by the Stagy rite, of the 

 organ of all organs. (See the remarks on. 

 this subject in the article COMPARATIVE, 

 ANATOMY.) 



The monkeys, apes, and other anthropo- 

 morphous animals, can, v\ fact, be called 



Del 



