THE GORILLA'S HAND. 
27 
bone wliieli strengthen the whole, besides giving attachment to muscles ; the cylindrical shape is the 
best for strength and lightness, and these properties are increased by the adoption of a plan which 
engineers have long since unwittingly copied. The shaft is hollow, and is cellular at both ends, solid 
bone covering the outside, conditions which oppose fracture, and produce increased strength, indeed 
greater strength and lightness than a solid bone would have. Below the shaft is an expansion, on which 
are placed the surfaces for the jointing on of the two bones of the fore-arm, and the bone is especially 
in old Gorillas perforated there, a condition seen in some very old human bones. There is an im- 
portant point in the relative length of the upper arm-bone, and the bones of the fore-arm in the 
Gorilla, in other Apes, and in man, for in this great Ape and in us the humerus is longer than the 
others, and in the Chimpanzee they are almost equal, whilst in the rest of the Monkeys they are very 
unequal, the bones of the fore-ann being much the longest. 
Although they have such strong arms, covered with a stout skin and with hairs sloping 
downwards, the Gorillas sometimes manage to break them, and then Nature endeavours to repair the 
injury. In the skeleton of the old male Gorilla in the British Museum there are proofs of a former 
fracture of the humerus or upper arm-bone. The arm was broken across, and as it could not be kept 
quiet, Dame Nature has not done her work as well as a modern surgeon could on a patient whose arm 
he could put in splints, for it is thickened, shortened, and twisted. 
The fore-arm of the Gorilla has its long hairs pointing upwards to the elbow, and the limb does not 
slope gracefully towards, and become slightly smaller above the wrist, as in man, but remains thick and 
fleshy as far as the hand. There are two bones in the forearm winch are jointed above with the lower 
end of the arm-bone (humerus), and which are also connected by joints at their lower ends with the 
small bones forming part of the wrist. The bones of the fore-arm are called the radius and the ulna 
in the Gorilla as in man. They are larger, stouter, and wider apart in the great Ape than in ordinary 
Europeans, but they greatly resemble those of the Australian aborigines. As these bones are covered 
with muscles, some going to the Angers, and others coming from the upper arm, there are many 
ridges or surfaces on them, for their origin and attachment, and these greatly resemble those of 
man ; moreover, the muscles perform the same functions and movements. 
When compared with that of a. strong man, the wrist of the Gorilla is broader, and the bones, of 
the same number, are larger from side to side, and this extra breadth makes tins part of the hand 
very wide. As the Gorilla’s hand often has to support the weight of the body, on the back of the 
fingers and knuckles, it is long, broad, and very strong, surpassing in these respects those of man ; 
but the thumb is peculiar. It does not look a well-formed one ; it is evidently short, and out 
of proportion to the long fingers. The human thumb reaches not far from the second joint of the fore- 
finger ; but the top of that of the Gorilla is on a level with the first joint, or at the end of the long 
bones of the hand, and which are called metacarpal bones. 
Remarkable then for its breadth and thickness, the Gorilla’s hand has also a long palm, which is 
not only due to the length of the bones, just mentioned, but also to the fact that the web or undivided 
skin between the fingers, where they join the hand, is not slight as in man, but long and very decidedly 
visible. The web extends half way up the first joint of the fingers. The fingers are therefore made to 
appear short * (although their bones are long), and they look dumpy and swollen, and this appearance 
is increased by there being callous pads of skin on the back of the middle and end joints. Finally, the 
fingers slope to the nails, which are not much larger or longer than those of man. The back of the 
hand is hairy as far as the divisions of the fingers ; and the callous pads, just noticed, almost do away 
with the appearance of some of the joints. The short thumb, not so big as the forefinger, has a nail 
which does not reach the end of it, and the under-parts of the thumb, fingers, and palm have a bare 
skin. Professor Owen, in summing up the difference between the structure of the hands of the Gorilla 
and of man, remarks that in the great Ape the hands are instruments for great power of grasp, and for 
sustaining great weight, and the length and strength of the whole upper limb accord with their 
mechanical powers and requirements. In man, the framework of the hand bespeaks an organ of 
varied and delicate prehension, and the form and proportion of the rest of the ami-limb relate to the 
free motions and complex functions of the instrument. 
* See page 16. 
