184 THE SPEECH OF MONKEYS. 



farther or more careful examination. Huxley, one of our 

 greatest living zoologists, gave full evidence that there is 

 really no difference at all between these two, that, on the 

 contrary, apes are just as much two handed creatures as 

 man. The hind foot, or if we want to use the old ex- 

 pression, the hind hand, is really no hand but a regular 

 foot, whose toe can be moved freely, and thus enables 

 the foot to grasp things as we do with our hands. The 

 same thing we find with negroes and other uncivilized 

 tribes who use their big toes as well as their thumbs just 

 like apes, nay, in the young child of the most civilized 

 white race we find the ability of moving the big toe as 

 well as the fore-hand thumb. It is only through want of 

 exercise, bad treatment, tight shoes, and leather- 

 covered boots, that we lose the movability of our toes, 

 while all wild tribes who never use any foot-wear are 

 able to do things with their feet which no European 

 could ever accomplish. 



Still more, Huxley gave proof that there are real 

 anatomical differences between hand and foot, which 

 means, that we find the same differences between the foot 

 and the hand of the apes as between the corresponding 

 members of man. The arrangement, size, shape of the 

 bones, the quantity and the fixation of the muscles is 

 the same in both, and,to state a small item which is con- 

 vincing, however, the foot of ape possesses three more 

 muscles tlian the hand, and the very same difference is 

 found in man's foot and hand. 



So we see that this very characteristic, pointed out as a 

 decisive evidence of the great difference between man 

 and ape proves just the contrary, the zoological in- 

 separability of the two. The utter failure, of proving 

 the former, is so much th.e more striking, as it was the 

 apes and not man who introduced two-handedness and 

 began to walk on their hind feet only. In many natural 

 histories we find it stated as something remarkable that 



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