THE GORILLA'S CHEST. 
29 
pass from the long spines of the pieces of the back-bone (vertebrae) to the blade-bone, and which in 
climbing tend to drag the first towards the last-mentioned bones, and to move the body generally 
upwards. The huge size of the blade-bone assists in this in the Gorilla, as its large surface can give 
adhesion to larger muscles than a smaller one ; and as the arm -bones are large, there is all the more 
room for muscular \ >1 1 y. 
Considering the bulk of the body of a Gorilla, and the nature of the movements of climbing, 
it is to be expected that those muscles and bones which are connected, as just stated, with the blade- 
bone, should be large and strong. This is remarkably the case. On examining the back of a Gorilla 
one is struck with the great projection of the back-bones in the neck. In man each back-bone or 
vertebra has a projection or spine which sticks out backwards more or less. These are small in the 
region ol the neck, but in the Gorilla these spines are very long there, and give a peculiar hump- 
necked appearance. Their size, however, is in exact relation with the size and strength of the muscles 
attached to them, and some of these go to the blade-bone to assist in the act of climbing. 
It is this hump-necked appearance and the round-backed look produced by the great size of the 
blade-bones which makes a Gorilla so ugly about the chest and head, but beauty is of much less use 
in an African forest than good stout bones and active muscles. 
The hind part of the neck does not form a graceful curve as in a well-made man, but a 
projection which gradually slopes into the line of the back. Moreover, the shoulders of the Gorilla 
do not slope from the neck — on the contrary, their direction is that which renders the hand-over-hand 
movement of climbing the readiest of commencement. They are “ high,” as the term is, the head 
and neck being as it were sunken between them, so that the chin, instead of being on a much higher 
level than the top of the breast-bone, is naturally lower than it. The front of the neck is thus hidden 
by the huge lower jaw. 
Gorillas have collar-bones which are in the same position as those of men, but they are straighter, 
stouter, and stronger: they are not placed almost horizontally between the front of the blade-bone and 
the breast-bone, as in us, but as the shoulders are “ high ” they slant downwards to the breast-bone. By 
placing the band on the upper part of the opposite side of the chest the collar-bone may be felt with 
the tips of the lingers like a ridge, and it is one which many know to their cost is very readily 
broken by a fall on tin; end of the shoulders. The bone is something like the letter f in outline, 
without the cross-bar, and it is fixed at both ends : so when a force acts on one end in the direction of 
the length of the bone it tends to bend, and often cracks and breaks across. 
Now a fractured collar-bone would be a serious thing to a Gorilla ; he could no longer lift up his 
arm, and lie would be in constant peril and difficulty ; hence, Nature has given him not only a very 
strong and straight bone, but has by the “high” shoulder posture rendered a fall on the top of it 
almost impossible. A fall would probably injure the upper part of the arm, which is well protected 
by the thick cushion of muscle, flesh, and hairy skin which covers the bone. 
Travellers and hunters have noticed the rapidity and ease with which the Gorilla moves when off 
the ground, and when the size and the weight of the animal are considered it becomes evident that 
not only must it have great muscular power but a stout heart, good circulation, and capital “wind.” 
It must be remembered also that it is a great eater of vegetable food, and that it has to consume 
a huge quantity to obtain a supply of nourishment : in other words, it has a very capacious stomach, 
which has to be carried about and kept very well filled. 
In order to meet these requirements there is a very capacious chest (much more so than in man), 
which contains the large luugs and heart, and the belly is flaccid and large, so that the stomach need 
not press upwards and interfere with the breathing, or with the action of the circulation. Man has 
twelve ribs on either side, but the Gorilla has thirteen, each of which is longer, stouter, and broader 
than ours, the result being to make the cavity enclosed by them the greater, but apparently less 
readily influenced by the muscles of respiration. 
When we breathe deeply and endeavour to inspire more than is usual we employ certain muscles 
which act on the ribs, enlarging the cavity of the chest, and then diminishing it as the expiration occurs. 
The larger the spaces between the ribs, and the more elastic the ribs themselves, the greater is their 
possible amount of movement. In us it is very great in the child, great in man, but much less in old 
age, when the elasticity of the ribs diminishes. In the Gorilla, the breadth and strength of the ribs 
