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
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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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    CUNNINGHAM MEMOIRS. The Lumbar Curve in Man and the A^jes, with an Account of the Tojjographical Anatomy of the Chimpamee and Orang-utan. By D. J. Cunningham, M.D. (Edin. & Dubl.); M.R.I.A.; Professor of Anatomy and Cliirurgery in the University of Dublin. (With Plates I. to XL). [Eead, February 8th, 1886.] The structural differences between Man and the anthropoid Apes are very largely due to man's assumption of the erect attitude, and to his having dispensed with the use of his upper limbs as a means of locomotion. Thus the upper limbs are shortened, whilst the lower limbs are lengthened and strengthened, and possess the power of being fully extended at the hip and knee-joints. There is not a region of the body in which modifica- tions in structure to suit this characteristic posture may not be found ; and it is natural that the vertebral column, in its vertical position, should exhibit peculiarities which are not shared by those animals in which it is oblique or more or less horizontal. A feature which has attracted a considerable amount of attention is the lumbar curve—that bulging or convexity forwards in the region of the loins which constitutes so marked a character of the human spine. By some this curve is regarded as peculiar to man, and this view has recently received the support of Pansch^ and Aeby.^ Other anatomists deny to man the prescriptive ' Anatomisclie Vorlesungen, von Dr. Ad. Pansch, 1884. - Beitrage zur Osteologie des Gorilla. Morph. Jahr. vol. iv.