THE GORILLA AND OTHER APES. 327 



young children not only move the toes apart, so that the 

 great toe and the little toe will be inclined to each other (in 

 the plane of the sole) nearly ninety degrees, but also dis- 

 tinctly clutch with the toes. The habit has no relation to 

 the child's actual means of satisfying its wants. I have 

 often thought that the child's manner of clutching with its 

 fingers is indicative of the former arboreal habits of the 

 race, but it is not difficult to explain the action otherwise. 

 The clutching movement of the toes, however, cannot be so 

 explained. The child can neither bring food to its mouth 

 in this way nor save itself from falling ; and as the adult 

 does not use the toes in this way the habit cannot be re- 

 garded as the first imperfect effort towards movements sub- 

 sequently useful. In fact, the very circumstance that the 

 movement is gradually disused shows that it is useless to the 

 human child in the present condition of the race. In the 

 very young gorilla the clutching motion of the toes is 

 scarcely more marked than it is in a very young child ; only 

 in the gorilla the movement, being of use, is continued by 

 the young, and is developed into that effective clutch with 

 the feet which has been already described. Here we have 

 another illustration of that divergency which, rather than 

 either simple descent or ascent, characterizes the relation- 

 ship between man and the anthropoid ape. In the growing 

 gorilla a habit is more and more freely used, which is more 

 and more completely given up by the child as he progresses 

 towards maturity. 



Probably the arboreal progenitor of man was originally 

 compelled to abandon his arboreal habits by some slow 

 change in the flora of his habitat, resulting in the diminution 

 and eventual disappearance of trees suited for his move- 

 ments. He would thus be compelled to adopt, at first, 

 some such course as the chimpanzee making huts of such 

 branches and foliage as he could conveniently use for the 

 purpose. The habit of living in large companies would (as 

 in the case of the chimpanzee) become before long necessary, 

 especially if the race or races thus driven from their former 



