Habits and Osteology of a New Orang. 439 
l'rom an examination of the narratives of travellers, and the 
works of some naturalists, it will be found that no one pecu- 
liarity is more strongly insisted upon than the ability and dis- 
position of the Orangs to assume and maintain the erect atti- 
tude. An attentive examination however, of their organization, 
as compared with that of man, gives the most conclusive evi- 
dence on the other hand, that they are not constituted like him 
for the erect position, a conclusion abundantly supported by 
the observation of living specimens exhibited from time to time 
in America and Europe. Evidence is yet to be adduced that 
any Quadrumanous animal whatever, assumes or maintains the 
erect attitude in its ordinary and natural movements. The 
gait of an Orang walking on its legs alone, is one of great in- 
stability, the animal showing by its bent position like that of 
an infirm old man, by the attitude of the arms, the constant 
effort to balance itself, and its disposition to get assistance from 
surrounding objects, that such a mode of progression is one of 
extreme difficulty. 
The conditions for walking erect, as manifested in the human 
skeleton, are as follows: 
l. The head must be balanced, or very nearly so, on the 
atlas ; 
2. The curves, and the general direction of the vertebral - 
Column must be such that the centre of gravity of the trunk 
‘Shall be over the plane of the pelvis, passing through the heads 
9f the thigh bones ; : 
! 3. The lower extremities on which the pelvis rests should 
5 the axes of the thigh and leg in one and the same vertical 
Sblane : 
H A 
4. The feet should be directed at right angles to the axes of 
; the sole resting on the ground. 
Ue These conditions are found to co-exist in man, and in man 
p alone ; they are not found in any of the anthropoid animals 
hitherto described, nor is there any nearer approximation to 
hem in the species now under consideration, unless it be the 
existence of a pelvis a little more perfect in its conformation — 
