494 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



man did I find a separation of four millimetres at the "base of the 

 first two toes. The Ecole d'Anthropologie has several traces of feet 

 taken by M. Manouvrier among Fuegians, Araucanians, Omahas, 

 and Arabs of Algeria and Morocco, in none of which is there any 

 example of this anatomical peculiarity. I have not observed it in 

 any European or in any white child.* The habit of walking bare- 

 footed may produce a slight divergence of the great toe, but not 

 at the base. The function of prehensibility must therefore be 

 considerably developed for such a divergence to exist. Still, 



heredity appears to have a part in it ; 



^S"""ii Millimeters /^^~X for we do not observe it except among 



\ / * \ peoples who have exercised the func- 



\ / \ tion from a remote antiquity. It 



[ would be interesting to dissect a foot 



I presenting this formation and com- 



1.1 pare it with the foot of a white. "We 



rieferaA should most likely find the oblique 



^-J and transverse abductor muscles very 



Fig. 6. The First and Second Toes highly developed. It is a CUrfent fact 



OF THE ANNAMITE Van. hi j_1 xl 1 



that exercise strengthens the muscles. 

 It would also be desirable to learn the origin of the separation at 

 the base of the first and second toes. It can not be caused, as in 

 the monkey, by the head of the first metatarsal playing on that 

 of the second, for there is no movement of opposition here. It all 

 takes place in the metatarso-phalangeal articulation. M. Testut, 

 in a work on the Quaternary skeleton of la Chancelade, remarks 

 that the anterior articular surfaces of the metatarsi which are 

 destined for the phalanges are more extended, in length as well as 

 in breadth, than those which have been observed on the metatarsi 

 of European races. Unfortunately, we have data only for the 

 articular surfaces of the last four metatarsi the first, the one 

 that interests us, having probably been suppressed. M. Testut 

 concludes that this disposition is related to the mobility of the 

 toes on the metatarsus a mobility which has probably been con- 

 siderably diminished in man since he has made his foot exclusive- 

 ly an organ of support. Whether the skeleton of the Indian is 

 like this, and whether the separation of the base of the toes can 

 be explained in this way, suggest hypotheses which dissection 

 alone can verify. 



The examination of the prehensile foot suggests forcibly the 

 thought of comparing it with the foot of the monkey. The differ- 

 ence between the opposable foot of the monkey and the foot of 

 man has been variously explained. The non-transformists base 



* The movements of the toes are well developed in new-born children ; but I have never 

 observed, in children's hospitals, any trace of opposition. 



