160 



INITIATIVE IN EVOLUTION 



such a remarkable change of arrangement as we see when we look 

 at the foot of man and of any other Primate involves on our part 

 a tremendous stretch of imagination as to its modus operandi. 

 These low, soft ridges of man's foot could do little to prevent him 



from slipping on such surfaces as 

 grass, sand, rock, wet or dry, and 

 from the time when he began to 

 protect his feet with coverings this 

 small value would be further 

 reduced. Underneath his developing 

 plantar arch it woidd not exist at 

 all, and yet here especially he has 

 changed their direction. As to the 

 papillary ridges, man's foot ha,s 

 sadly embarked on the pathway of 

 degeneration much as his little toe 

 has done. Not only has he here a 

 much simpler arrangement than 

 any ape or monkey, but the 

 individual ridges are blurred and 

 flattened on much of the plantar 

 surface. This comes of his pride in 

 acquiring his human distinction, or 

 title of nobility, of a plantar arch 

 and his coincident increase of 

 pedestrian locomotion. On the 

 trij)le bases of support, heel, ball 

 of great and little toe, the ridges 

 are still strongly marked and 

 coarse ; transverse on the heel, 

 whorl-like on the ball of the 

 great toe, and oblique or nearly 

 transverse on that of the little 

 toe. On the rest of the surface 

 they are vulgarly transverse. 

 g And I may add that the toe- 

 of papillary ridges made from prints of man are simplicity itself 

 impression. compared with his finger-prints. 



It would seem that this example 

 of arrangement of ridges on man's foot is strongly in favour of 

 the hypothesis that they are so disposed by flexion of the foot 

 in walking, and not by some need for prevention of slipping 

 under the guidance of selection. 



