Habits and Osteology of a New Orang. 441 
Lastly, the feet are always inverted, in consequence of the 
mode of their articulation with the leg. Living habitually in 
trees, and the natural locomotion being that of climbing or 
swinging from limb to limb by the aid of long and powerful arms, 
their feet are so constructed as to enable them to apply the 
soles against the sides of the trunks and branches, consequent- 
ly requiring them to be in planes, either really in, or approx- 
imating to a vertical direction. When on the ground, there- 
fore, they are from necessity obliged to walk on the outer edge 
of the foot, and this with the other peculiarities of their 
Organization, gives them an unstable gait, contrasting with 
that of man, who, habitually walking erect on a horizontal sur- 
face, has the soles of the feet necessarily in a horizontal plane. 
The organization of the anthropoid Quadrumana justifies 
the naturalist in placing them at the head of the brute creation, 
and placing them in a position in which they, of all the animal 
Series, shall be nearest to man. Any anatomist, however, 
who will take the trouble to compare the skeletons of 
the Negro and Orang, cannot fail to be struck at sight with 
the wide gap which separates them. The difference between 
the cranium, the pelvis, and the conformation of the upper ex- 
tremities in the Negro and Caucasian, sinks into comparative 
insignificance when compared with the vast difference which 
exists between the conformation of the same parts in the Ne- 
Sro and the Orang. Yet it cannot be denied, however wide 
the separation, that the Negro and Orang do afford the points 
Where man and the brute, when the totality of their organ- 
zation is considered, most nearly approach each other - 
