THE PREHENSILE FOOT OF EAST INDIANS. 49 5 



upon it an argument against the application of the transformist 

 theory to man. Some Darwinians believe that if man used his 

 foot constantly and generally as a prehensile organ, an opposition 

 of the great toe would .be gradually evolved in the adaptation of 

 the organ to that function. The preceding study, however, proves 

 that this is not the fact. Among a people who have for centuries 

 commonly used their feet as a prehensile organ no movement of 

 opposition has been produced ; while in some persons an adapta- 

 tion to the new function has been observed, namely, a separation 

 of the great toe and wide and strong lateral movements, but only 

 lateral a pincers-foot, not a hand-foot. It will be seen, on re- 

 flection, that the condition could not be otherwise. 



In walking, the weight of the body is borne on the heads of the 

 five metatarsi, but mostly on the head of the first one. If that 

 was not united solidly to the second metatarsus, and could turn 

 around it as is done in the hand, it would give way every time the 

 foot touched the ground, and the foot would want a sufficient in- 

 ternal point of support; walking would still be possible, but it 

 would be hard and laborious occasional, and not a habitual nor- 

 mal act. It is thus with the monkey, which is supported solely 

 on the outer edge of the foot. Even the anthropoid walks rarely 

 and awkwardly ; its foot, adapted to living in the woods, has the 

 opposition movement convenient for climbing easily; it has a 

 foot-hand. The man who, continuing to walk, likewise wants a 

 prehensile foot, can not enjoy this movement, which is incom- 

 patible with walking. He satisfies himself with lateral move- 

 ments between the great toe and the second toe, or a pincers-foot. 

 All this is simply a consequence of the general biological law of 

 the adaptation of the organ to the function. Translated for The 

 Popular Science Monthly from the Revue Scieniifique. 



A ouBious, secretive proceeding of swans is described in Nature by Jessie 

 Godwin-Austen. The cygnets having been just hatched out, the male bird picked 

 up an empty half egg-shell lying beside the water and carefully carried it to the 

 edge of the water some twenty feet from the nest, filled it with mud, and pushed 

 it into the river, where it sank to the bottom ; and then repeated the performance 

 with the other half egg-shell. On returning to the nest the last time, he placed a 

 few sticks across the small track he had made. As no other pieces were seen 

 about the nest, while five cygnets were hatched, it is inferred that the bird had 

 done the same with all the egg-shells. 



A paper by Mr. Edward Dobson, in the Australasian Association, on Human 

 Habitations in Prehistoric Times, was devoted to showing that, while rectangular 

 forms prevailed in the early buildings of the East and in North America, the cir- 

 cular form had prevailed throughout Africa (with the exception of the Nile 

 Valley) and through Switzerland and northern Europe, in Lapland and Green- 

 land ; and raised an inquiry as to the causes of these facts. 



