PECULIARITIES OF HUMAN SKELETON. 43 



The toes are far less mobile than the fingers, the 

 difference between great toe and thumb being especially 

 marked. The thumb can be made to meet each of the 

 finger-tips, and so the hand can seize and manipulate very 

 small objects, while this power of opposing the great toe 

 to the others is nearly absent in the foot of civilized man. 

 In infants, and in savages who have never worn boots, the 

 great toe is often much more movable, though it never 

 acts so completely like a thumb as it does in most apes, 

 whose feet are used for prehension nearly as much as their 

 hands. Our own toes can by practice be made much more 

 movable than they usually are ; persons born without 

 hands have learned to write and paint with the toes. 



Peculiarities of the human skeleton. There are some 

 interesting points in the structure of the human skeleton, 

 connected with our power of maintaining the erect posture, 

 and of progressing on the feet so that the hands are left 

 free for grasping. In no other vertebrate is the division 

 of labor between the anterior and posterior limbs carried 

 so far ; the highest apes often use the hand in locomotion 

 and the foot for prehension. As characteristic of man's 

 skeleton we may note : 



1. The skull is nearly balanced* on the top of the verte- 

 bral column (Fig. 20) so that but little effort is needed to 



Are toes or fingers more mobile ? How does the thumb differ in 

 this respect from the great toe? What reason have we to think that 

 the shoe has produced this effect? In what animals is the great toe 

 more movable ? What power have their feet in consequence ? Can 

 we make our toes more movable by practice? Illustrate. 



With what facts are the more marked peculiarities of the human 

 skeleton connected? In what living creature is the division of 

 labor between arms and legs carried farthest ? 



Does the skull of man nearly balance on its support? 



* The balance is, however, tint quite complete. When any one goes to sleep in 

 an ill- ventilated lecture room he is usually awakened by a shnrp jerk down wards of 



