268 THE HISTORY OF CREATION. 



quently, by most subsequent zoologists. It was not until 

 1863 that Huxley, in his excellent work, the " Evidence as 

 to Man's Place in Nature," ^"^ showed that this classification 

 was based upon erroneous ideas, and that the so-called 

 " four-handed " Apes and Semi-apes are " two-handed " as 

 much as man is himself. The difierence between the foot 

 and hand does not consist in the 'physiological peculiarity 

 that the first digit or thumb is opposable to the four other 

 digits or fingers in the hand, and is not so in the foot, for 

 there are wild tribes of men who can oppose the fii'st or 

 large toe to the other four, just as if it were a thumb. 

 They can therefore use their " grasping foot " as well as a 

 so-called " hinder hand," like Apes. The Chinese boatmen 

 row with this hinder hand, the Bengal workmen weave 

 with it. The Negro, in whom the big toe is especially 

 strong and freely moveable, when climbing seizes hold of 

 the branches of the trees with it, just like the "four- 

 handed " Apes. Nay, even the newly bom children of the 

 most highly developed races of men, during the first months 

 of their life, grasp as easily with the " hinder hand " as 

 with the "fore hand," and hold a spoon placed in its 

 clutch as firmly with their big toe as with the thumb! 

 On the other hand, among the higher Apes, especially the 

 gorilla, hand and foot are diflferentiated as in man. (Com- 

 pare Plate IV.) 



The essential difierence between hand and foot is there- 

 fore not physiological, but morphological, and is determined 

 by the characteristic structure of the bony skeleton and of 

 the muscles attached to it. The ankle-bones differ from 

 the wrist-bones in arrangement, and the foot possesses 

 three special muscles not existing in the hand (a short 



