THE EVOLUTION OF THE HUMAN FOOT.'^ 



Bv M. Anthony. 



If it were possible for ii.s to turn Ixick some thousands of centuries 

 and find ourselves, with our present form and intelligence, suddenly 

 transported to a geologic epoch long since passed awa}-, and into the 

 midst of the fauna of the Middle Tertiary epoch, we would l)e unable 

 to restrain our curiosit}' or moderate our astonishment. 



We should see, gamboling and sporting upon the plains, the ances- 

 tors of our present ungulates, and we ma}" well belieye that in the 

 deep forest shades we should encounter, together with great carniyora, 

 beings similar to the anthropoids that liye to-day in the forests of 

 equatorial Africa and Malaysia, covered with hair, with prehensile 

 feet, prominent mandibles, and uttering inarticulate cries. 



We should doubtless pass them by without supposing that they 

 could possibly be in anj" way related to ourselves. 



How could we suppose, indeed, that beings so different from our 

 present form could be the ancestors of man, whose intelligence has 

 finally enabled him to bring under subjection the rest of the animal 

 world !; 



Nevei'theless, the recent progress in comparative rational anatomy, 

 as well as in embryology and paleontology whose results continually 

 tend to supplement and confirm those of that science, enables us to say 

 that it is no longer absurd to suppose that our ancestors lived upon 

 trees, that they were covered with hair, and lacked the faculty of 

 speech. We no longer have to rely upon our imagination alone to 

 support the doctrine that there was a common arboreal ancestor from 

 which sprang both man and the anthropoids, and who must have 

 immediately preceded Pithecanthropus upon the earth. Although 

 this ancestor has not 3'et ])ecn placed before us by paleontological 

 discoveries, Hfeckel has, in anticipation, named it " Prothylobates.'" 

 We have every reason to think that he must have been very nuichlike 

 existing anthropoids; similarly adapted, without doubt, to an arboreal 

 life, in which direction the anthropoids have improved; like them, 

 therefore, he must have had a pi-ehonsile foot and the bestial face 

 which prominent jaws combined with a relativel}" small brain would give. 



What necessity has intervened to cause a modification of these forms ? 

 How was the adaptation to terrestrial locomotion effected? What 



«A Broca lecture given l)efore the Societe d'Anthropologie. Translated from the 

 Revue Soientifique (Pari,«) for January 31, 1903, pp. 129-139. 



SM 1903 3-1: ol9 



