42 Skeleton of the Oorilla, 



olecranon fossa, it is more like the same bone in man than 

 in macaque. The . Ulna and Radius are more bowed and 

 strongly marked for origin of muscles than in man. The 

 lesser sigmoid cavity of the radius is, as in macaque, foi-ther 

 removed from the shaft than in man. The Hand is of a 

 large size, the pisiform hone and phalanges being greatly 

 developed, the former for bending the wrist, the latter for 

 grasping. Upper Extremity. — This really imposing part 

 of the gorilla's skeleton differs widely in its uses from the 

 upper extremity of man. Of the varied functions which 

 the hand of man performs I need not speak. In the gorilla 

 its chief use is for grasping and progression. It is in this 

 latter he loses all resemblance to man and approaches the 

 macaque. The excessive length of the arms enables him to 

 walk as a quadruped, and more especially, by the enormous 

 development of the pectoral muscles and by the peculiar 

 attachments of the loMssimus dorsi and dorso epitrochlearis 

 muscles, the latter not existing in man, but present in the 

 macaque, to draw his huge body afier hirn, as in clir)ibing. 

 Du Chaillu says : ' The skin on the back of the fingers, near 

 the middle phalanx, is callous and very thick, which shows 

 that the most usual mode of progression of the animal is on 

 all-fours.' Again : ' The common walk of the gorilla is not 

 on his hind legs, but on all-fours. In this posture the arms 

 are so long that the head and breast are raised considerably, 

 and as it runs the hind legs are brought far beneath the body. 

 The leg and arm of the same side move together, which 

 gives the beast a curious waddle. It can run at great speed.' 

 The Femur, both in man and macaque, is longer than 

 the humerus, but in the gorilla it is shorter. It differs in 

 other most important respects from the same bone in man. 

 Thus in man the femur has two obliquities, one of the neck 

 and another of the shaft, whereby the lower extremity is 

 approximated to its fellow, that the feet may be conveniently 

 brought within the area of support. In the gorilla there is 

 only an inclination of the neck, and none of the shcift, so that 

 the lower end is as far from the median line of the skeleton 

 as the upper or farther — a disposition favourable to a quad- 

 rupedal, but not to a bipedal walk In the proportionate 

 size of the trochanter's, it resembles more the femur of the 

 macaque than of man. The Leg. — There is a curious - 

 similarity between the relative lengths of the leg and foot in 

 both gorilla and macaque, by which they differ equally fi'om 

 man. Thus, the length of the tihict in man is 16 in., of the 



