The hand : its mechanism and vital endowments, as evincing design.

  • Bell, Charles, Sir, 1774-1842.
Date:
1834
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The hand : its mechanism and vital endowments, as evincing design. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    70/376 (page 48)
    remark the strength and solidity of the lower extremities, in contrast with the superior. Not only are the lower limbs longer and larger than those of any other animal, but the pelvis is wider, and the oblicpiity of the neck of the thigh bone greater. The distances of the large pro- cesses on the upper ends of the thigh bones (the trochanters,) from the sockets, are also greater than in any of the vertebrata. Altogether the strength of these bones, the size and jirominence of their processes, the great mass of the muscles of the loins and hips, distinguish man from every other animal; they secure to him the up- right posture, and give him the perfect freedom of the arms, for purposes of ingenuity and art. At the head of this chapter is a sketch of the Chimpanzee,* an ape which stands high in the order of quadrumana; yet we cannot mistake * Simia troglodytes, from the coast of Guinea, more human in its form, and more easily domesticated than the ourang-outang. We would do well to consider the abode of these creatures in a state of nature—vast forests, extending in impenetrable shade below, whilst above, and exposed to the light, there is a scene of verdure and beauty; this is the home of those monkeys and lemurs which have extremities like hands. In many of them the hinder extremity has the more perfect resemblance to a hand; and in the Coaita (p. 19) we see the great toe assuming the cha- racters of a thumb, whilst in the fore paw the thumb is not dis- tinguishable, being hid in the skin. In short, these paws are not approximations to the hand, corresponding with a higher inge- nuity, but are adaptations of the feet to the branches on which the animals climb and walk.