SIR WILLIAM JAR DINE ON MONKEYS. 



451 



have lost my time/ said I to him at noon ; ' you know not how to manage 

 me ; think only of my promise, and do not listen to my threats.' The 

 next morning he fulfilled my wishes, by forcing me to rise in spite of 

 my ill-humour ; and every succeeding day he was indemnified for my 

 cross temper when I awoke by my thanks and a crown, which he 

 received an hour after ; indeed, I owe to my poor J oseph ten or twelve 

 volumes of my works." 



We must now pass on to the Monkeys, and shall begin with the 

 general observations introductory to the histories of individual species. 

 The following are some of the just and excellent remarks made by the 

 author upon the striking differences between the orang-outang and 

 man : — 



" The parts," says Sir William Jardine, " allotted for locomotion in the most 

 man-like monkey are unfitted for sustaining an upright attitude, while they are 

 beautifully adapted to perform all the requisites of a sylvan life. 



" The first distinction that would undoubtedly strike an observer of an orang and 

 human being placed in the same enclosure would be the positions and attitudes ; 

 and a closer attention would soon convince that the corresponding members in each, 

 while beautifully formed for their proper uses, could not be employed to perform 

 similar actions with an equal degree of strength, firmness or ease. 



" Few persons in the present era will assert 



' Men have four legs by nature, 



And that 'tis custom makes them go 

 Erroneously upon but two.' 



While the fact that no nation in the world assumes any except the erect attitude, 

 will be sufficiently conclusive without making use of the many arguments which 

 might be drawn from the adaptation of structure. Let us now see how this agrees 

 with the natural gait of the orangs. In man the limbs, the principal organs of 

 progression, and of maintaining the upright position, are equal in length to the 

 head and trunk together, while the upper extremities are comparatively short. The 

 glutei muscles are the largest in the human body, and the gastrocnemi, or calf, are 

 of immense power, and terminate in a powerful cord inserted in the extremity of 

 the bone, forming the heel or os calcis. These, however, would be insufficient 

 without a surface or base on which the trunk itself could rest ; and we find this 

 supplied by a broad and capacious pelvis, with which the thigh-bones form a right 

 angle by means of the length of the cervix femoris, or neck of the thigh-bone. In 

 the orangs, on the contrary, and indeed in all monkeys, the lower extremities are 

 comparatively short, while the upper or arms are very long, so as to allow the 

 knuckles to be applied to the ground when the animal is nearly erect, and which 

 is, in fact, the mode of progression always adopted when necessity requires this 

 position. The black orang, noticed by Dr. Tyson, advanced in this manner, and 

 that dissected by Dr. Trail was observed never to place ' the palms of the hands on 

 the ground.' Dr. Abel's red orang performed the progressive motion by placing 



