The body is very ball-like, and there is no visible division between
the chest, the stomach, and the hips; it is not troubled with a waist,
and anything like one is positively below the hips, just over where the
thighs join the body. In fact, as before noticed, the shape is that
of a frog. There are no graceful curves to the back, and there is no
“small” to it. On looking at the chest, it will be noticed that it is
long behind and short in front; the ribs go down close to the edge of
the hips; and in order that this extra stoutness and strength of loin
shall be there, there are fourteen ribs, instead of thirteen, as in the
other great Apes. The breast-bone in front sticks out, so that were the
animal to lie on its stomach its point would lean on the ground, and
not its front, as in us. This last peculiarity is an adaptation for
going on all-fours. The absence of waist and the shape of the loins
relate to the small size of one of the muscles of the back (sacro
lumbalis), large and important in man.
[Illustration: KOOLO-KAMBA.]
The belly is very large, and it is kept from pushing into the chest by
the capacity given to the space within the ribs and breast-bone, by a
bulged-out state of the ribs at the back, and the projection of the
breast-bone. Hence, the frog-like figure looks asthmatical; and as it
is very high-shouldered, there is but little neck.
All this bulging has not only reference to the maintenance of the
capacity of the lungs, and its independence of the great stomach,
which, when full, would tend to press in all directions, but it enables
the muscles of the back and shoulders, which have so much to do with
climbing, to be large and vigorous. More space is afforded for the
insertion or attachment of muscular fibres.
The blade-bone does not add to the bulk of the shoulders, for it is
rather long and narrow for a great Ape; and its spine, which has so
much to do with the muscles which lift up the arm, is very much aslant,
and in the best direction for constant climbing, instead of much
walking on the knuckles. And that climbing and holding on are the usual
motions may be credited, it is only necessary to notice that the arms
and the fingers are long, and that the tips of them touch below the
knee when the skeleton is placed upright. Moreover, this great length
is accompanied by corresponding strength, and also by a very curious
condition of the hands.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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