108 THE RELATIONS OF MAN 



And if we desire to ascertain whether the terminal 

 division of a limb, in other Primates, is to be called a foot 

 or a hand, it is by the presence or absence of these char- 

 acters that we must be guided, and not by the mere pro- 

 portions and greater or lesser mobility of the great toe, 

 which may vary indefinitely without any fundamental 

 alteration in the structure of the foot. 



Keeping these considerations in mind, let us now turn 

 to the limbs of the Gorilla. The terminal division of the 

 fore limb presents no difficulty — bone for bone and muscle 

 for muscle, are found to be arranged essentially as in man, 

 or with such minor differences as are found as varieties in 

 man. The Gorilla's hand is clumsier, heavier, and has a 

 thumb somewhat shorter in proportion than that of man ; 

 but no one has ever doubted its being a true hand. 



At first sight, the termination of the hind limb of the 

 Gorilla looks very hand-like, and as it is still more so in 

 many of the lower apes, it is not wonderful that the appel- 

 lation " Quad rum ana," or four-handed creatures, adopted 

 from the older anatomists* by Blumenbach, and unfortu- 

 nately rendered current by Cuvier, should have gained 

 such wide acceptance as a name for the Simian group. 

 But the most cursory anatomical investigation at once 



* In speaking of the foot of his " Pygniie," Tyson remarks, p. 13 : — 

 "But this part in the formation and in its function too, being liker a Hand 

 than a Foot : for the distinguishing this sort of animals from others, I have 

 thought whether it might not be reckoned and called rather Quadru-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 Buffon, 

 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." 



