THE OEDEE OF BIMANA. 39 



in a country where coverings for the feet are in daily and uni- 

 versal wear. We must not go into the midst of our great 

 cities if we wish to study the zoological characteristics of man. 



Is there any reason for the Order of Bimana when we 

 consider man in his state of nature ? is it " the immediate 

 and necessary results of natural analogies, respectively va- 

 lued according to their degree ?" " No !" was the answer of 

 Etieime Greoffroy, in his eloquent pages, ' ' this Order must be 

 abolished/'* 



E. Greoffroy saw workmen in the bazaars at Cairo employ 

 their great toe for numberless prehensile uses. A Nubian, 

 or a negro on horseback, generally takes the stirrup-leather 

 between his great toe and the others; all the Abyssinian 

 cavalry ride in this manner, f If the fact reported by Bory de 

 Saint-Vincent about the rosin-makers of the Landes is not con- 

 firmed, J we have at least seen the Barabras Nubians ascend 

 the great yard of the Nile dahabieJis by seizing with the great 

 toe the rope underneath them which supports the sail. 



When the action of the foot is not paralysed by the size of 

 the shoe, which is elsewhere the exception, it is pre-eminently 

 adapted for laying hold of anything. And if certain kinds of 

 men seem to us very fit for the kind of existence led by the 

 Quadrumana, if they seem to us constituted in order to live 

 in trees, there is nothing there which ought to surprise us, 

 nothing but what is quite natural and quite consistent. 



It has been truly said, tl^at man isfrugivorous. All the de- 

 tails of his intestinal canal, and above all, his dentition, prove 

 it in the most decided manner. He ought, therefore, from his 

 origin, to have all his organism modified in harmony with this 

 alimentation. Like the apes, he ought to possess such means 

 of locomotion as would enable him to procure the food specially 

 adapted to his wants. And therefore, what is there astonish- 

 ing in the fact that among certain races, which are scarcely 



* Comptes Rendus de I'Academie des Sciences, vol. ii, p. 581. 



f See the magnificent work, Sketches of Central Africa, and the portrait of 

 the chief, Kanema, in Earth's Travels, vol. iii. 



Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, Hist. Naturelle Generale, vol. ii, pp. 200-515. 



[See Huxley's Man's Place in Nature, 8vo, London, 1863 ; and the article 

 thereon in the Edinburgh Review, April, 1863. EDITOR.] 



