ORANG OTJTANG. 



21 



The Joints, Ligajnents, §c. 



"Neither the joints nor the ligaments present any 

 very peculiar appearances. The head is articulat- 

 ed, as in man, and moves on the tooth-like process 

 of the second vertebra of the neck. The motions 

 of the humerus are free on the glenoid cavity ; the 

 joints of the elbows, wrists and fingers, are capable 

 of all the varieties of motion we find in the human 

 body. As our subject was young, the connecting 

 cartilages of the whole body were large, and those 

 of the pelvis so shrivelled in drying, as to distort 

 the form of the basin. The symphysis pubis is more 

 firmly united than in the Simia Maim on ; where it 

 was only closed by a broad cartilage of little thick- 

 ness. The acetabulum is round, but not quite so 

 deep as in man. The round ligament is fixed to the 

 under and inner side of that cavity, but approaches 

 nearer to its lower edge than in the human subject. 

 The hip-joint has a very free motion upward and 

 outward; and may be easily rolled, so as to bring the 

 femur parallel with the parietiesof the abdomen; but 

 the knees cannot be so easily approximated as in man, 

 This causes the animal to stand with its feet more 

 asunder ; and instead of the slight inward curvature 

 of the knees, which occurs in our bodies, they are bent 

 outward in the Orang Outang, which must make it 

 waddle when it walks erect. The motion of the 

 knee-joint is free backwards ; but the animal does 



