tebra. The sacrum and coccyx are inclined forward, as also are the genito-urinary passages. The pelvic bones are laterally expanded, and the more so, Vrolik has shown, as we ascend the scale of human beings, bearing the weight of the viscera above them. The femur (especially at its neck) is longer, as well as the whole lower extremity, so that while the hands reach to the ancles in the ourang, they but touch the middle of man's thigh. The femoro-tibial surfaces are very broad, and the foot most remarkable for size, curved form, projection of calcis, which, with the big toe, are supporting surfaces so perfect, that man alone can stand on one limb. The kangaroo alone is said to excel man in length of leg and size of foot. The inner toe or hallux of apes is small, posterior not supporting, but opposable, like a thumb; hence their specific designation of " four-handed." Other evidences of the erect attitude are seen in the superior size of the muscles of the buttock, and of the calf, and in the great flexor pollicis being inserted into the big toe alone, and not three middle toes as in quadrumana. The tales then of men adopting the prone position in Lord Monboddo's works, and the account of "Peter, the Wild Boy," quoted by Blumenbach, may be now regarded as ludicrous misconceptions.

Another most admirable human attribute is the hand, which the beautiful discourse of Sir C. Bell has shown does not really exist in lower animals, in whom nothing comparable to the "extensor indicis," to the thumb, firmly opposable by its great muscular ball to all the fingers, nor to the exquisite mobility or tactile sense of the fingers, can be pointed out. Of this wonderful instrument, which has been the means of spreading intellectual culture over the globe, Quintilian said :-' Nam ceteræ partes loquentem adjuvant, hæ prope est ut dicam, ipsæ loquuntur. His poscimus, pollicemur, vocamus, dimittimus minamur, supplicamus, timemus; gaudium tristitiam, dubitationem, confessionem, penitentiam mo

dum, copiam, numerum, tempus ostendimus." Other characteristics are, smoothness of skin, scantiness of hair, and preponderance of it on the ventral aspect, and the absence of weapons of defence. Reason has, however, enabled him to construct the deadliest engines, and to subjugate other creatures as ministers of his wants and pleasures.

Man's teeth are equal in length, so that the canine attains no greater size than others, and those of the upper and lower jaw form corresponding lines, without any break or diastema, which occurs in all animals save the fossil genus anoplotherium. The premaxillary bone, which is large in most animals, and contains the incisor teeth, is scarcely present save in the earliest embryonic period. It existence was, however, demonstrated by the immortal poet and anatomist Goëthe. Surgeons have to deal with it in the malformation termed "double hare lip."

Prof. Owen justly considers the gorilla to be the most anthropoid of all quadrumana; yet, in the skull alone he enumerates thirty differences from that of man. There is, for instance, the great size of the canines, which are, moreover, intended for combat, not for prehension of food, as the animal is frugivorous. Again, these canines are larger in the male, being divided by a diastema from the incisors in the upper jaw, and from the premolars in the lower. Then the two rows of molars are parallel, the premaxillary bone, lower jaw, and zygoma large and well developed, and the face prognathous. The cubical capacity of the smallest human skull equals 63 cubic inches, whereas the largest gorilla cranium measures but 34.5. The distinctive characters of man's brain, and that of anthropoid apes, have given rise to one of the most famous of scientific controversies; Prof. Owen asserting that in man alone does the posterior lobe overlap the cerebellum, and in him alone is found the posterior cornu of the lateral ventricle and its hippocampus minor-state

ments energetically denied by Prof. Huxley and other anatomists. The greater weight of the trunk, the length

Comparative view of Skeletons of Gorilla and Man, after Huxley. of the arm, the slight curves of the vertebral column, the inconsiderable lateral expansion of the pelvic bones, the latissimus dorsi being inserted into the olecranon, and being thirteen pairs of ribs, may be noted as also remarkable.

Having now mentioned the most striking differences in the anatomical conformation of man and those creatures below him, it may be allowed that there are few peculiarities in his physiological functions, except his wonderful adaptibility to the most diverse conditions of climate, food, and other physical circumstances, which that order of beings approaching him nearest is, strange to say, least of all able to endure. Man's growth is slower, maturity not being attained till beyond the age

of twenty; but his longevity is greater, as shown by the following

It shows the number of males and females (the equality of whom affords a strong argument for monogamy) who will be found living at each period of years, and the probable duration of their life if 100,000 infants be taken. The weight of the human body varies less than that of other animals, as determined by Quetelet's famous calcu

lations, which, being useful as standards, are here given in pounds avoirdupois :

Still further, man differs from other animals in the powers of his mind, in the variety, force, and delicacy of his feelings, in the vast prerogative of articulate speech, and, above all, in the possession of an immortal soul. The belief in a Supreme Being, and in a future state, is in all men innate, or natural, and easily developed. He alone endeavours to mitigate the sufferings of his fellowbeings—a consideration which much enhances the dignity of Medicine. Susceptibility of education he shares, to a certain limited extent, with the lower animals; but to him alone is given the privilege of progress from age to age, so that each generation inherits the experience and acquisitions of its predecessors, and humanity grows wiser and wiser as it advances.

""Tis the sublime of man,

Our noontide majesty, to know ourselves--
Part and proportion of a wondrous whole."

So strongly marked are the distinctions, both structural and psychological, between man and all beings below him, that they afford (especially as no efficient modifying circumstances have been suggested) weighty arguments against the doctrine of "progressive development," for, as Owen remarks, "Nine-tenths of the differences which have been cited as distinguishing the great chimpanzee from the human species, must stand in contravention of the hypothesis of transmutation and progressive development, until the acceptors of that hypothesis are enabled to adduce the facts demonstrative of the condition of the modifiability of such characters."

That there is, however, unity of type pervading the whole animal kingdom, comparative anatomy has long