ANATOMICAL STRUCTUEE OF ANTHROPOID APES. 107 



ground, or draw them towards them. Constant 

 practice in such feats produces a certain dexterity. 

 Negroes, Malays, Polynesians, and Indians make 

 use of their outstretched great toes in climbing 

 with as skilful a gripe as our schoolboys and sailors 

 are also able to do in gymnastics, or in climbing up 

 the masts. Among such people the distinction 

 between the foot of man and apes is less marked, 

 since, even when at rest, the great toe is apt to be 

 somewhat detached from the others. This may be 

 seen in A. Buchta's excellent photographs of indi- 

 viduals of the Central African tribe, the Makraka. 

 Haeckel justly observes that there is no marked 

 physiological distinction between the hand and foot 

 which can be established on a scientiiic basis. In 

 order to make such a distinction it is necessary to 

 consider their morphological characteristics.* 



Structure of the skeleton. — In comparing the skulls 

 of anthropoids with those of men, we should, in the 

 case of the gorilla, chimpanzee, and orang-utan, 

 content ourselves with young specimens rather than 

 with the skulls of adults. In aged apes of these 

 species, the colossal development of the bony crests 

 of the skull, as well as that of the jaws, the promi- 

 nence of the orbital rim, and the flattening of the 

 occipital bone, present distinctions of such a search- 

 ing character that we are greatly hindered in the 

 pursuit of the comparative method. But during 

 the process of development the anthropoid skeleton 

 admits of a direct comparison with that of man. 

 In a young animal the rounded skull suggests a 



* Anthropogenie, p. 482 : Leipzig, 1874. 



