File:Carpenter's principles of human physiology (1881) (14594642947).jpg

Identifier: carpentersprinci00carp (find matches)
Title: Carpenter's principles of human physiology
Year: 1881 (1880s)
Authors: Carpenter, William Benjamin, 1813-1885 Meneses, Henry Power
Subjects: Human physiology Physiology
Publisher: London : J. & A. Churchill
Contributing Library: Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine
Digitizing Sponsor: Open Knowledge Commons and Harvard Medical School

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gh ; and it is from the relative length ofthis part in him that the middle point of the height of the body is in the adultas low as the symphysis pubis, and further from the comparative shortness ofhis anterior extremities, his hands only reach the middle of his thighs,whilst in the Chimpanzee they hang on a level with the knees (Fig. 7), andin the Orang they descend to the ankles (Plate).* The Human femur is * The following Table (Beaunis, Nouveaux Elements de Physiologie Humain, p. 40) givesthe lengths of the limbs as compared with the vertebral column in Man and the higherApes:—■ European. Bushman.Vertebral column . . 100 ... 100 Arm 80 ... 78 Leg 117 ... 110 Hand 26 ... 26 lost 35 ... 32 Gorilla. Ch impanzee. Orang. 100 100 .. 100 115 96 .. 122 96 90 .. 89 36 43 .. 48 41 39 .. 52 DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF MAN. 25 distinguished, however, by its form and position, as well as by its length.The obliquity and length of its neck still further increase the breadth of the Fig. 7.
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Skeleton of Troglodytes Gorilla. hips; whilst they cause the lower extremities of the femora to be somewhatobliquely directed towards each other, so that the knees are brought moreinto the line of the axis of the body. This arrangement is obviously of greatuse in facilitating the purely biped progression of Man, in which the entireweight of the body has to be alternately supported on each limb ; for if theknees had been kept further apart, the whole body must have been swungfrom side to side at each step, so as to bring the centre of gravity over the topof each tibia; as is seen to a certain extent in the female sex, whose walk,owing to the greater breadth of the pelvis and the separation between theknees, is less steady than that of the male. There is also a marked difference 26 DISTINCTIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF MAN. between the knee-joint of Man and that of even the highest Apes. In theformer, the opposed extremities of the femur and the tibia are so expanded asto present a very broad

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