324 PRESENT PROBLEMS IN EVOLUTION AND HEREDITY. 



versiou (1 per cent) in onr lace and not an ac(j[mred variation, as it 

 is very freqnently foniul among the Sioux, 50 per cent, Lai)l;inders, Gl 

 per cent, and Swedes, -ST per cent; like the condylar foramen it is an 

 ancient mammalian cliaracter. 



The foot is full of interest in its association of degeneration and de 

 velopment with our present habits of Avalking"; the great toe is increas- 

 ing and the litth' toe diminishing, causing the obli(|ue slo])e from witliiii 

 outward whicli is in wide contrast with the scpiare toes in the infant or 

 in tlie lower races, in many races the second toe is as long as the first, 

 and the feet are carried [)arallel instead of the large toe turning out. 

 If anyone will analyze liis sensations in walking, even in his shoes, he 

 will be conscious that the great toe is taking active part in progression 

 while the little toe is passive and insensitive. We are not surprised, 

 therefore, to learn from Pfitziicr* that we are losing a phalanx, that in 

 many human skeletons (41.5 per cent in women and 31 per cent 

 in men) the two end joints of the little toe are fused. The fusion 

 occurs not oidy in adults, but between birth and the seventh year, and 

 in embryos of between the fiftli and seventh month. The author does 

 not attribute this to the mechanical pressure of tight shoes because it 

 is fonnd iu the poorer classes. He considers it the first act of a total 

 degeneration of the fifth toe. 



Variations in the muscles. — The evolution of the muscles of the foot 

 looks in the same direction. As you know, the large toe in nuiuy of 

 the apes is set at an angle to the loot and is used in climbing. It is 

 still employed in a variety of occupations by different races. Accord- 

 ing to Treadett,t the celebrated great toeof the Annamese, which nor- 

 mally i^rojects at a wide angle from the foot, is contemptuously men- 

 tioned in Chinese annals of 22S5 li. c, the race being then described 

 as the "cross-toes." The long fiexor of the hallux is apparently de- 

 generating, showing a tendency to fuse with the fiexor communis; the 

 al)ductors and adductors of this toe are also degenerating, the latter 

 beingproportionately large in (diildren (Huge). The little toe exhibits 

 only by reversion its primitive share of the fiexor brevis (Gegenbaur); 

 more frequently it \aries in the direction of its future decline by losing 

 its flexor brevis tendon entirely. Two atavistii; nuiscles, the abductor 

 metatarsi quinti:}: (always present in the aj)es), and the peroneus parvus 

 (Bischoff'). also i)oint to the former mobility of the outer side of the foot. 

 In general the bones of the foot are developing on the inner and degen- 

 erating (m the outer side, with loss of the lateral movements of the 

 hallux and of all independent movements in the little toe. The associ- 

 ated habit is that the main axis of pressure and strain now connects 

 the he(d and great toe, leaving the outer side of the foot comi)aratively 

 functionless. 



* See Humboldt, 1890; n,\so Nature, 1890, p. ;!li]. 



i Journal of the Anthropological Inxtilntc. ISSO, p. 4t!l. 



t Darwin : Descent of Man, p. 42. 



