ii APES: HAND AND FOOT. 129 



And as to the foot, the great toe of the Mar- 

 moset is still more insignificant in proportion than 

 that of the Orang — while in the Lemurs it is very 

 large, and as completely thumb-like and opposable 

 as in the Gorilla — but in these animals the second 

 toe is often irregularly modified, and in some spe- 

 cies the two principal bones of the tarsus, the 

 astragalus and the os calcis, are so immensely 

 elongated as to render the foot, so far, totally un- 

 like that of any other mammal. 



So with regard to the muscles. The short 

 flexor of the toes of the Gorilla differs from that 

 of Man by the circumstance that one slip of the 

 muscle is attached, not to the heel bone, but to 

 the tendons of the long flexors. The lower Apes 

 depart from the Gorilla by an exaggeration of the 

 same character, two, three, or more, slips becoming 

 fixed to the long flexor tendons — or by a multipli- 

 cation of the slips. — Again, the Gorilla differs 

 slightly from Man in the mode of interlacing of 

 the long flexor tendons: and the lower apes differ 

 from the Gorilla in exhibiting yet other, some- 

 times very complex, arrangements of the same 

 parts, and occasionally in the absence of the acces- 

 sory fleshy bundle. 



Throughout all these modifications it must be 

 recollected that the foot loses no one of its essen- 

 tial characters. Every Monkey and Lemur ex- 

 hibits the characteristic arrangement of tarsal 

 bones, possesses a short flexor and short extensor 

 173 



