ANATOMICAL STRUCTURE OF ANTHROPOID APES. 141 



arrangements of its parts. Huxley adds that it 

 must not be supposed that he wishes to undervalue 

 differences which, however, he does not regard as 

 fundamental. They are important enough of their 

 kind, since in any case the structure of the foot 

 is in close correlation with the other parts of the 

 organism. Although it cannot be doubted that the 

 increased division of labour in man, which relegates 

 the function of support entirely to the legs and 

 feet, is a significant advance in structure ; yet, re- 

 garded as a whole from the anatomical point of 

 view, the points of agreement between the human 

 foot and that of the gorilla are much more striking 

 and significant than their differences. 



The differences in the foot of the orang are still 

 greater ; in the very long toes and short tarsus, the 

 short great toe and the removal of the heel from the 

 ground, in the great obliquity of the joints which 

 connect the foot with the shank-bones, and in the 

 absence of a long flexor muscle to move the great 

 toe, the orang's loot differs still more from that of the 

 gorilla than the latter differs from the human foot. 

 In some of the lower apes the hands and feet are still 

 further removed from those of the gorilla than in the 

 case of the orang. In the American apes the thumb 

 can no longer be opposed ; in the ateles it is reduced to 

 a mere rudiment, covered with skin ; in the sahius it 

 is bent forwards and provided with a curved claw like 

 the other fingers. In all these cases there is no doubt 

 that the hand differs more from that of the gorilla 

 than the gorilla's hand differs from that of man.* 



* Manual of the Anatomy of Vertebrated Animals, p. 481: 

 London, 1871. 



