THE HUMAN BABY 



205 



In the relative proportion of arm and leg the human 

 baby is, therefore, far more like an Anthropoid— far more 

 like an arboreal animal — than are its parents. 



In other features the same tendency is shown, and we 

 will only note in passing the far greater ])ower of toe- 

 grasp displayed by infants and young childien than is 

 ever seen in European adults. This point is merely 

 noted, and no stress is laid on it, since the habit of wearing 

 boots is so readily appealed to as the factor which has 

 deprived the adult European foot of its grasping powers. 

 One other detail with regard to the foot of the human 

 baby should be mentioned, and that is the inturning of 

 the soles, which, characteristic of the arboreal Primates, 

 is so well marked in infants. The soles of a babj-'s feet 

 are turned inwards so completely that they can ])e 

 pressed fiat against each other, this, indeed, being a 

 common position of rest in an infant, as in an arl)oreal 

 Anthropoid. 



When children learn to walk, it is upon the outer side 

 of their feet that they trust their weight, exactly as the 

 Anthropoids are wont to do. The bones upon the outer 

 side of the feet are first ossified, and it is the outer margin 

 of the foot which first bears the body weight ; the eversion 

 of the foot is a later and a human characteristic. It is 

 this inherited arboreal foot-poise which leads children to 

 make holes in the outer sides of the soles of their boots 

 before the inner margin are subjected to any great degree 

 of wearing. 



Only one other arboreal characteristic of the human 

 baby will be noted here, and that is one whieh has so 

 often been discussed, as to be well within the bounds of 

 homely and domestic knowledge. No one who has let 

 even a very young bab}^ entwine its fingers in his luur. 

 or has permitted a slightly older one to gra])pk' with Ins 

 watch and chain, will doubt the very real i)ower of an 

 infant's hand-grasp. This extraordinary power of hand- 

 grasp, although a very homely thing, is one of the most 



