114 



Captain Skinner. The latter says that at the same town a pair of 

 nearly full-grown ones were domesticated, one of whom, on his ap- 

 proach, gravely advanced and offered his hand. He also brought two 

 large constrictor snakes, which are either Boas or Pythons ; the lat- 

 ter, if they have teeth in the intermaxillary bone, a question which 

 I could not safely decide. 



I have nothing new to offer upon the general habits and manners 

 of the Chimpanzee, concerning which, and those of the Gorilla, 

 see Martin's Man and Monkeys ; Dr. Savage and Prof Wyman on 

 the Natural History and Anatomy of Gorilla, Boston Journal of Nat- 

 ural History, Vol. V. No. 4, 1847 ; Prof Owen on the Gorilla, in the 

 Classification and Geographical Distribution of Mammalia, and Du 

 ChaiUu's Equatorial Africa. But I will say a few words on some 

 points in its anatomy connected with its habits. 



First, as to the power of straightening the limbs, which differs in 

 the arms and legs ; the former may be made nearly or quite as straight 

 as the human, as is natural, since, in their natural mode of progres- 

 sion, the body is supported by the arms ; but the flexors predominate 

 over the extensors. The legs cannot be straightened to the same 

 extent, for the animal seldom hangs by them, and in progression upon 

 the earth the legs are always semi-flexed ; the weakness of the ex- 

 tensor muscles of the trunk and legs is another eyidence of the ape's 

 inability to assume and maintain the erect position. The knee joint 

 admits of considerable rotation, in adaptation to the prehensile func- 

 tion of the foot, the hand-like appearance of which is due not only to 

 the separation of the great toe from the others as an opposable 

 thumb, but also to the elongation of the third or middle digit as in the 

 human hand. But I wish, in particular, to correct an erroneous infer- 

 ence given in my paper on the muscles of the Chimpanzee (Contribu- 

 tions to the Comparative Myology of the Chimpanzee ; Boston Journal 

 of Natural History, Vol. vii., April 17, 1861). The specimen which 

 I dissected was of the same size as this, but had been preserved in 

 alcohol for several years. I observed that the hand and fingers could 

 not be straightened together ; but if the hand was extended in the 

 same line with the fore-arm, the fingers curled up tightly about mine 5 

 so that, in addition to the great strength of the flexor muscles of the 

 fingers, here was also a meclianical assistance in climbing, resulting 

 from the shortness of the tendons ; this seemed a very nice thing, and, 

 was borne out by the fact that the digits of the anthropoids are 

 usually flexed, and that the knuckles of the anterior limb are applied 

 to the earth, instead of the palmar surface. But a moment's exam-, 

 ination of this live individual showed that the inference had not the 

 slightest foundation in nature ; for her hands and fingers may be bent 

 back together quite as far as those gf man. The error in the case of 



