470 The American Naturalist. [June, 



the Harvard Medical School, to be a true reversion (one per 

 cent.) in our race and not an acquired variation, as it is very 

 frequently found among the Sioux (fifty per cent.), Lapland- 

 ers sixty-four per cent., and Swedes thirty-seven per cent, ; 

 like the condylar foramen it is an ancient mammalian char- 



The foot is full of interest in its association of degeneration 

 and development with our present habits of walking; the 

 great toe is increasing and the little toe diminishing, causing 

 the oblique slope from within outward which is in wide con- 

 trast with the square toes in the infant or in the lower races. 

 In many races the second t.oe is as long as the first, and the 

 feet are carried parallel instead of the large toe turning out. 

 If anyone will analyze his sensations in walking, even in his 

 shoes, he will be conscious that the great toe is taking active 

 part in progression, while the little toe is passive and insensi- 

 tive. We are not surprised, therefore, to learn from Pfitzner 1 

 that we are losing a phalanx, that in many human skeletons 

 (41.5 per cent, in women and thirty-one per cent, in men) the 

 two end joints of the little toe are fused. The fusion occurs 

 not only in adults but between birth and the seventh year. 

 and in embryos of between the fifth and seventh month. The 

 author does not attribute this to the mechanical pressure of 

 tight shoes because it is found in the poorer classes. He con- 

 siders it the first act of a total degeneration of the fifth toe. 



Variations. in the Muscles.— The evolution of the muscles 

 of the foot looks in the same direction. 



As you know, the large toe in many of the apes is set at an 

 angle to the foot and is used in climbing. It is still employed 

 in a variety of occupations by different races. According w 

 Tremlett 2 the celebrated great toe of the Annamese, which 

 normally projects at a wide angle from the foot, is contempt- 

 uously mentioned in Chinese annals of 2285 B.C., the race 

 being then described as the " cross-toes." The long flexor of 

 the hallux is apparently degenerating, showing a tendency to 



] See Humboldt, 1890; also Nature, 1890, p. 301. 

 journal of the Anthropological Institute, 1880, p. 461. 



