88 THE STKUCTUEE OF MAN 



no fear of his falling need be entertained, for his foot accurately 

 adapts itself to the surface of the roof ! " 



[Although the great toe of the adult human subject may be 

 thus thumb-like in function, an important difference between 

 the hallux and pollex exists, in the inconstancy in relation 

 to the former of an opponens muscle, such as is present in the 

 manus, and more generally in both manus and pes of the 

 anthropoid Apes. The act of grasping by the human hallux 

 differs from that by the pollex in being one of mere adduction 

 and closer apposition of the first and second digits.] 



The cousins Sarasin have pointed out, that in the Veddah's 

 foot the great toe stands apart from the other toes, and that the 

 last four metatarsals are turned towards the first one more than 

 in a European foot. The whole foot is also flatter, as can be 

 observed in the living state. [In dealing with this comparison 

 allowance must be probably made for the use of the boot.] A more 

 important distinction, from the comparative anatomical point of 

 view, is that the tarsus is markedly shorter and narrower than that 

 of the European. If 100 be taken as the length of the second 

 metatarsal in a European, then 163 would represent the length 

 of the tarsus; in the Veddah it is 152, in the Gorilla 145, and 

 in the Chimpanzee 113, so that the tarsus is found to decrease 

 in length as we descend in the series. A similar diminution in 

 breadth is also recognisable. 



According to Pfitzner, whose accurate observations on the 

 variations in the human pedal skeleton are of special interest, the 

 variations in the proportions of the foot, e.g. in the length of the 

 metatarsals and phalanges, are far greater than those of the 

 hand. This applies especially to the great toe and its 

 metatarsal ; and correlatively, the ento-cuneiform is much more 

 liable to variation than are the meso- and ecto-cuneiform. The 

 so-called Lisfranc's line is also liable to variation in its course, 

 and this especially applies to the third tarso-metatarsal articula- 

 tion. The latter does not as a rule continue the line of the 

 fourth tarso-metatarsal articulation, but makes an angle with it, 

 consequent upon the mode of articulation between the ecto- 

 cuneiform and the fourth metatarsal, which is prolonged back- 

 wards. Here, as well as in the hallux, we have to deal with 

 recent variation (Pfitzner). The great toe is in men not only 

 absolutely but relatively longer than in women, and this is 

 true of the thumb also, a slight confirmation of the well-known 

 saying that women represent the conservative and men the 



