The lumbar curve in man and the apes : with an account of the topographical anatomy of the chimpanzee, orang-utan, and gibbon / by D.J. Cunningham.

  • Daniel John Cunningham
Date:
1886
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The lumbar curve in man and the apes : with an account of the topographical anatomy of the chimpanzee, orang-utan, and gibbon / by D.J. Cunningham. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    brothers Weber/ Niihn,^ Hirschfeld,* Horner,* Meyer/ Barwell, and Aeby/ the adaptation of the vertebral bodies to the different curves is treated with more or less fulness: further, Aeby has compared the measure- ments of a European spine with those of the vertebral bodies of a gorilla, two gibbons, and some of the lower apes. None of these investigators, however, have extended their observations in this direction to the lower races of man and all the anthropoid apes. Method adopted in making the Measurements.—The only form-adaptations of the vertebral bodies which could contribute to the formation of the antero-posterior lumbar curve are those which affect the anterior and posterior vertical diameters of the centra, or, in other words, those which produce the wedge-shape or keilform condition. Consequently the measurements were strictly confined to the determination of the vertical depth of the body of each of the five lower true vertebrae in front and behind, and to a comparison of the results obtained in each case. The instruments which were employed were Professor Flower's craniometer and the French compas glissiere. But in several instances it was necessary to measure the bones in the articulated skeleton. This was avoided wher- ever it was possible to do so, because the determination of the posterior vertical diameters of the vertebral bodies in such cases is a matter of great difficulty; and even with the utmost care errors are apt to occur. A few of the lower races and of the anthropoid apes were measured under these con- ditions, and to ensure accuracy a special pair of calipers were used. In ' Mcchanik der menscliliclicn Gehwerkzeuge, von den Briidern Willielm und Eduard Weber (1836), p. 92. ^ Untersuchungen und Beobachtungen aus dem Gebiete der Anatomic, &c. Erstes Heft (1849), p. 14. ^ Nouvel aper^u sur les conditions anatoniiques des courbures de la colonne vertebrale chez rhomme. Gaz. Med. de Paris. 1849. * IJeber die Normale Kriimmimg der Wirbelsaule. Miiller's Archiv fiir Anat. Phys., &c. (1854), p. 478. * Lebrbuch der pbysiologiscben Anatomic des Menschen. 1861. Tbe Causes and Treatment of Lateral Curvature of the Spine. 1868. Beitrage zur Osteologie des Gorilla. Morpb. Jahr., vol. iv. [1*]