Toes and Thumbs 151 



with longer or shorter thumbs, and the great toe, always 

 smaller than in man, is far more movable and can be 

 opposed like a thumb to the other toes. vSince Huxley 

 wrote, a considerable amount of evidence has been col- 

 lected shewing that partial opposability of the toe in 

 man is not uncommon, and that there is evidence as to 

 a tendency to increase of length of the great toe within 

 historical times. None of the great apes have tails, 

 and none of them have the cheek pouches common 

 among lower monkeys. 



Huxley then gives an account of the natural history 

 of these animals, an account which still remains the 

 best in literature. He sums up the habits of the Asiatic 

 forms as follows : 



1. They may readily move along the ground in the 

 erect, or semi-erect position, and without direct support 

 from the arms. 



2. They may possess an extremely loud voice, so loud 

 as to be readily heard one or two miles. 



3. They may be capable of great viciousness and vio- 

 lence when irritated ; and this is especially true of adult 

 males. 



4. They may build a nest to sleep in. 



He finds the same general characters in the case of 

 the gorilla and chimpanzee, but in their case there was 

 not quite so reliable evidence upon which to go. 



Although, since Huxley wrote, there has been much 

 greater opportunity of studying anthropoid apes, both 

 in confinement and in their native haunts, there is not 

 much to add to his account. Some little time ago, the 

 world was interested by the assertion of a clever Ameri- 

 can that he had discovered a kind of language used by 

 the higher apes, and that he was able to communi- 

 cate with them. Mr. Gamier, the person in question, 



