258 



CONVERSION OF THE ORANG-OUTANa [Ch. XXXIV 



H 



to 



them 



circumstances, the liaMt of climbing trees, and of hanging on 

 by grasping the boughs with their feet as with hands. The 

 individuals of this race being obliged, for a long series of 

 generations, to use their feet exclusively for walking, and 

 ceasing to employ their hands as feet, were transformed into 

 bimanous animals, and what before were thumbs became 

 mere toes, no separation being required when their feet were 



used solely for walking. 



themselves upright, their legs and feet assumed, insensibly, 



in an erect attitude, 

 till at last these animals could no longer go on all-fours 

 without much inconvenience. 



The Angola orang {8imia troglodijtes^ Linn.) is the most 

 perfect of animals ; much more so than the Indian orang 

 {Simia Satyrus)^ which has been called the orang-outang, 

 although both are very inferior to man in corporeal powers 



These animals frequently hold themselves 

 upright ; but their organisation has not yet been sufficiently 

 modified to sustain them habitually in this attitude, so that 

 the standing posture is very uneasy to them. When the 



and intelligence. 



Indian 



orang 



is compelled to take 



flight 



from 



danger, he immediately falls down upon all-fours, sliowmg 

 clearly that this was the original position of the animal. 



Even in man, whose organisation, in the course of a long 



series of generations, has advanced so much farther, the 

 upright posture is fatiguing, and can be supported only for 

 a limited time, and by aid of the contraction of many muscles. 

 If the vertebral column formed the axis of the human body, 

 and supported tlie head and all the other parts in equilibrium, 

 then might the upright position be a state of repose ; but, 

 as the human head does not articulate in the centre of 

 gravity, as the chest, belly, and other parts press almost 

 entirely forward with their whole weight, and as the verte- 

 bral column reposes upon an oblique base, a watchful activity 

 is required to prevent the body from falling.* Children who 

 have large heads and prominent bellies can hardly walk at 

 the end even of two years ; and their frequent tumbles indi- 



* Phil. Zool. p. 353 



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