020 Nichtgehaltene Vorträge.. 



united with the os naviculare, which would bring the arrange- 

 ment closer to that met with in the hand. I described, some years 

 ago, an astraguloscaphoid bone found in the small foot of an 

 adult man. A lengthened first digit which Stands out from the 

 others in characteristic of some races or subgroups or 

 c a s t e s. Indian cooks can hold a knife between the toes to 

 cut meat against. Indian grooms are good runners. The ordi- 

 nary Walking foot of the Caucasian is apt to be narrow, but is 

 specialized for Walking, and in this regard must be looked upon 

 as an organ very susceptible of training, i. e. in putting the body 

 through difficult evolutions. It is certain that the bones of the 

 foot present not only phalangeal varieties but also varieties in 

 the tarsus e. g. the os trigonum, os trigonum bipartitum, Calcaneus 

 secundarius, os sustentaculum proprium (Pfitzner), os tibiale ex- 

 ternum. The os tibiale corresponds to the Prehallux, but Wald- 

 e y e r has shown that the bone described under this name is 

 not always the same bone. Three of the examples described by 

 Prof. Waldeyer are typical skeletal elements, and the tube- 

 rosity of the scaphoid may also be separate. There are many 

 other varieties in the bones of the foot in man. Some do not 

 seem to be atavistic, and many show the foot to be susceptible 

 of Variation. It seems certain that Caucasian children have feet 

 more suited for climbing, prehension, and squatting than the 

 feet of adults of the same race. About the question of adapti- 

 bility of the human race there can be no doubt, and there seems 

 to be evidence in favour of training the left hand as well as the 

 right. "The world is conceived" says W. R. Hertz "on an 

 essentially dualistic plan. It opposes the sacred to the profane, 

 the high to the low, the man to the woman, the day to the night, 

 the rieh to the poor, and the right to the left." All that is in the 

 first category is noble, all that is in the second is useless. Use 

 of the second is prevented as dangerous." "This echoing polari- 

 zation upon the human race is sufficient between two hands 

 with the least possible differences to serve to determine the sense 

 of the differentiation between the hands, which it would have 

 been unable to establish without the religious coneeption." (La 

 Revue philosophique, quoted by La Nature.) Dr. E. Biber- 

 geil of Berlin gives varieties of the tarsal bones that may be 

 mistaken for fractures (in Zeitschrift für Ärztliche Fortbildung 

 7. Jahrg. No. 11). Returning for a moment to M. Cuenot's 

 remarkable instances, it may be permitted to say that they are 

 examples which would have delighted Charles Darwin. 

 They do seem to prove that species may be more quickly varied 

 than one had reason to expect in certain cases. The examples 

 are of those that breed quickly and often, and the food acts 

 through many generations, and so far may see an approximation 

 to a wonderful Lamarckian theory. If we remember that 



