Contributions to the comparative myology of the chimpanzee / by Burt G. Wilder.

  • Wilder, Burt G. (Burt Green), 1841-1925.
Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Contributions to the comparative myology of the chimpanzee / by Burt G. Wilder. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

    3/36
    CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE COMPARATIVE MYOLOGY OF THE CHIMPANZEE. By Burt G. Wilder. Through the kindness of Prof. Jeffries Wyman, I was en- abled last winter to dissect one side of a young male Chim- panzee, Troglodytes niger, about two feet in height; as it had been kept in alcohol for two or three years, it could be examined more at leisure than a fresh specimen. The dis- section was very carefully made, and with special reference to the differences in the muscular system from that of man. Believing the mere facts in Anatomy or any sci- ence to be in themselves worthless till so grouped and studied as to exhibit the uses or functions which they represent, I have constantly endeavored to detect the meaning of the differences in size, number, and arrange- ment between the muscles of the Chimpanzee and those of man, and with this view have dissected portions of six other Quadrumana of the genera Macacus, Cynocephalus, and Ateles, and several lower animals, using also for com- parison the published or MS. notes of a large number of other dissections. (See list at the end of this paper.) I will speak first of some muscles whose functions are chiefly local, and then more in detail of the muscular sys- tem as adapted to the climbing habits of the Quadru- mana. l