THE OEDEE OF BIMANA. 41 



which appears to be entirely secondary and derived, that of 

 prehension. And it is precisely because the organisation of 

 their members is purposely modified by reason of a new, 

 special, and uncommon function, that they have been able to 

 furnish us with a sufficiently defined characteristic, so that we 

 may specify an order, that of the quadrumana. 



Among the anthropomorphous apes, the folded or bent hand 

 seems an organ especially adapted for prehension,* serving, in 

 a secondary manner, for locomotion ; whilst the foot, the 

 especial organ of locomotion, preserves the faculty of seizing 

 anything by means of an opposing thumb. 



In man, the superior member is not at all fit for walking ; 

 and the inferior, used for locomotion, as in the two preceding 

 groups, also preserves its faculty of prehension : observation 

 proves this as well as anatomy. 



We see that there again, as everywhere else in an organic 

 point of view, the anthropomorphous quadrumana are a veritable 

 transition from man to the other families of apes. It has 

 been proposed to extend the signification of the word hand, 

 and to apply it to every terminal extremity of a member 

 capable of seizing anything, including the paw of the lemur 

 and the claws of the parrot. We are inclined to restrict the 

 name, like Linnseus, De Blainville, and Cuvier, to an extremity 

 formed of fingers, and with an opposing thumb. But even in 

 confining the definition to such a narrow compass, we think 

 we have shown that man, in reality, is quadrumanous, this de- 

 finition applying equally to the foot, where the great toe serves 

 among half the people, at least, on the earth for the purpose 

 of prehension, and remains, as E. Geoffroy has remarked, 



* [We are told in the Voyages de Francois Pyrard, vol. ii, p. 331, Paris, 1615, 

 " that in the province of Sierra Leone there is a species (of orang-outang) so 

 strong limbed and so industrious that, when properly trained and fed, they 

 work like servants ; that they generally walk on the two hind feet ; that they 

 pound any substances in a mortar ; that they go and bring water from the 

 river in small pitchers, which they carry, full, on their heads. But when 

 they arrive at the door, if the pitchers are not soon taken off, they allow them 

 to fall ; and when they perceive the pitchers overturned and broken they 

 weep and lament." In the Voyages de Guat. Shoutten aux Indes Orientales, 

 we find nearly the same account of the orang : " they are taken with snares, 

 taught to walk on their hind feet, and to use their fore-feet as hands in per- 

 forming different operations, as rinsing glasses, carrying drink round to the 

 company, turning a spit," etc. EDITOR.] 



