CHAP. xxiv. WHY DECEPTIVE. 477 



of a limb in other animals is to be called a foot or a hand, it 

 is by the presence or absence of these characters that we 

 must be guided, and not by the mere proportions, and greater 

 or lesser mobility of the great toe, which may vary indefi 

 nitely 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 precisely as in 

 Man, or with such minute 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 the 

 lower apes, it is not wonderful that the appellation " Quadru- 

 mana," or four-handed creatures, adopted from the older 

 anatomists by Blumenbach, and unfortunately rendered 

 current by Cuvier, should have gained such wide acceptance 

 as a name for the ape order. But the most cursory anatomi 

 cal investigation at once proves, that the resemblance of the 

 so-called " hind-hand " to a true hand is only skin deep, 

 and that, in all essential respects, the hind-limb of the Gorilla 

 is as truly terminated by a foot as that of Man. The tarsal 

 bones, in all important circumstances of number, disposition, 

 and form, resemble those of Man. The metatarsals and 

 digits, on the other hand, are proportionally longer and 

 more slender, while the great toe is not only proportionally 

 shorter and weaker, but its metatarsal bone is united by a 

 far more movable joint with the tarsus. At the game 

 time, the foot is set more obliquely upon the leg than in 

 Man. 



( As to the muscles, there is a short flexor, a short extensor, 

 and a peronseus longus, while the tendons of the long flexors 



