ii THE PREHENSILE FOOT. 125 



of the Gorilla looks very hand-like, and as it is still 

 more so in many of the lower apes, it is not won- 

 derful that the appellation " Quadrumana," or 

 four-handed creatures, adopted from the older 

 anatomists * by Blumenbach, and unfortunately 

 rendered current by Cuvier, should have gained 

 such wide acceptance as a name for the Simian 

 group. But the most cursory anatomical investi- 

 gation at once proves that the resemblance of the 

 so-called " hind hand " to a true hand, is only 

 skin deep, and that, in all essential respects, the 

 hind limb of the Gorilla is as truly terminated 

 by a foot as that of man. The tarsal bones, in all 

 important circumstances of number, disposition, 

 and form, resemble those of man (Fig. 20). The 

 metatarsals and digits, on the other hand, are pro- 

 portionally longer and more slender, while the 

 great toe is not only proportionally shorter and 



* In speaking of the foot of his " Pygmie/' Tyson re- 

 marks, p. 13: — 



" But this part in the formation and in its function 

 too, being liker a Hand than a Foot: for the distinguish- 

 ing this sort of animals from others, I have thought 

 whether it might not be reckoned and called rather Quad- 

 ru-manus than Quadrupes, i. e. a four-handed rather than 

 a four-footed animal." 



As this passage was published in 1699, M. I. G. St. 

 Hilaire is clearly in error in ascribing the invention of the 

 term " quadrumanous " to Buff on, though " bimanous " 

 may belong to him. Tyson uses " Quadrumanus " in 

 several places, as at p. 91. . . . " Our Pygmie is no Man, 

 nor yet the common Ape, but a sort of Animal between 

 both; and though a Biped, yet of the Quadrumanus-kind : 

 though some Men too have been observed to use their 

 Feet like Hands as I have seen several." 



