5 



The chief deviations from the human structure are seen in the 

 limbs, which are of great power, the upper ones prodigiously strong, 

 making by comparison the legs, through the want of ' calves look 

 feeble. 



The first characteristic is the almost uniform thickness of each 

 segment of the limb : this is seen in the arm, from below the short 

 deltoid prominence to the condyles, neither biceps nor triceps 

 making any definite swelling ; a like uniform thickness is seen in the 

 antibrachium from below the olecranon to the wrist : the leg a little 

 increases in thickness from the knee to the ankle : the short thigh 

 shows some decrease as it descends : but there is a general absence 

 of those partial muscular enlargements which impart the graceful 

 varying curves to the outlines of the limbs in man. Yet this, upon 

 dissection, is found to depend rather on excess, than defect, of deve- 

 lopment of the carneous as compared with the tendinous parts of the 

 limb-muscles, which thus continue of almost the same size from their 

 origin to their insertion, with a proportionate gain of strength to the 

 beast. The difference in the length of the upper limbs between the 

 Gorilla and Man is but little in comparison with the trunk ; it appears 

 greater through the arrest of development of the lower limbs. Very 

 significant of the closer anthropoid affinities of the Gorilla is the 

 superior length of the arm (humerus) to the fore-arm, as compared 

 with the proportions of those parts in the Chimpanzee. The hair of 

 the arm inclines downward, that of the fore-arm upward, as in the 

 Chimpanzee. The thumb extends a little beyond the base of the 

 proximal phalanx of the fore-finger ; it does not reach to the end of 

 the metacarpal bone of that finger in the Chimpanzee or any other 

 ape : the thumb of the Siamang (Hylobates syndactyla) is still 

 shorter in proportion to the length of the fingers of the same hand : 

 the philosophical zoologist will see great significance in this fact. In 

 man the thumb extends to, or beyond, the middle of the first pha- 

 lanx of the fore-finger. 



The fore-arm in the Gorilla passes into the hand with very slight 

 evidence, by constriction, of the wrist, the circumference of which, 

 without the hair, was fourteen inches, that of a strong man averaging 

 eight inches. The hand is remarkable for its breadth and thickness, 

 and for the great length of the palm, occasioned both by the length 

 of the metacarpus and the greater extent of undivided integument 

 between the digits than in man ; these only begin to be free opposite 

 the middle of the proximal or first phalanges in the Gorilla. The 

 digits are thus short, and appear as if swollen and gouty ; and are 

 conical in shape after the first joint, by tapering to nails, which, being 

 not larger or longer than those of man, are relatively to the fingers 

 much smaller. The circumference of the middle digit at the first 

 joint in the Gorilla is 5^ inches ; in man, at the same part, it averages 

 2-J inches. The skin covering the middle phalanx is thick and cal- 

 lous on the back of the fingers, and there is little outward appear- 

 ance of the second joint. The habit of the animal to apply those 

 parts to the ground, in occasional progression, is manifested by these 

 callosities. The back of the hand is hairy as far as the divisions of 



