ii MAN AND APES: HAND AND FOOT. 119 



portion than the digits of the hand, and are less 

 moveable, the want of mobility being most strik- 

 ing in the great toe — which, again, is very much 

 larger in proportion to the other toes than the 

 thumb to the fingers. In considering this point, 

 however, it must not be forgotten that the civilized 

 great toe, confined and cramped from childhood 

 upwards, is seen to a great disadvantage, and that 

 in uncivilized and barefooted people it retains a 

 great amount of mobility, and even some sort of 

 opposability. The Chinese boatmen are said to be 

 able to pull an oar; the artisans of Bengal to weave, 

 and the Carajas to steal fishhooks by its help; 

 though, after all, it must be recollected that the 

 structure of its joints and the arrangement of its 

 bones, necessarily render its prehensile action far 

 less perfect than that of the thumb. 



But to gain a precise conception of the re- 

 semblances and differences of the hand and foot, 

 and of the distinctive characters of each, we must 

 look below the skin, and compare the bony frame- 

 work and its motor apparatus in each (Fig. 19). 



The skeleton of the hand exhibits, in the region 

 which we term the wrist, and which is technically 

 called the carpus — two rows of closely fitted polyg- 

 onal bones, four in each row, which are tolerably 

 equal in size. The bones of the first row with the 

 bones of the forearm, form the wrist joint, and are 

 arranged side by side, no one greatly exceeding or 

 overlapping the rest. 



