298 STUDIES IN THE EVOLUTION OF ANIMALS 



vertical furrow ; what indicated that they were in origin two 

 fingers was that the tendons (" epicondylo-sus-phalangetticus, et 

 cubito-phalangetticus communis") were also double. In some 

 individuals of this family the thumb was biphalangian, and among 

 these the extremity of the digit was sometimes bifurcated. In 

 other individuals the two portions which formed the digit were 

 united throughout as in other digits.' What is still more curious 

 is that in some individuals the third and fourth toes were similarly 

 bound up in one integument. 



Vanderbuch counted forty individuals of this Spanish family in 

 whom some abnormalities of digits existed. Almost all were healthy. 



A race of Cats is mentioned ^ with six digits on each foot, the 

 peculiarity having been inherited to the tenth generation. 



Then M. Guinard ^ quotes the case of a Bitch with six digits, 

 which transmitted this feature to almost all its young ones. He 

 also quotes Lenglen, who gives a case of a sex-digitate Man, whose 

 descendants, up to the sixth generation, all presented this feature. 

 He winds up by saying — ' Everybody knows the history of that 

 Arab tribe of the Foldi, whose children are all born with twenty- 

 four digits. The members of this tribe are very numerous, and do 

 not ally themselves with other tribes. They consider this feature 

 absolutely constant, so that when by chance a woman gives birth 

 to a child with five digits, she is considered to have committed 

 adultery, and her child is not acknowledged by her husband.' 



And finally (p. 131) M. Guinard writes — 'Mais en face de ces 

 faits, nous comprenons, sans I'admettre cependant, qu'on ait pu se 

 demander si le chiffre 5, adopts comme repr^sentant le nombre 

 normal des doigts, n'est pas un peu arbitraire, et s'il n'a pas exists 

 des individus ayant normalement six doigts.' 



Well may M. Guinard ask whether the archetypal five-digited 



' Royal Natural History, p. 427. - Prkis de Teratologie,' p. 130. 



