88 THE STRUCTURE OF MAN 
no fear of his falling need be entertained, for his foot accurately 
(2 
adapts itself to the surface of the roof 
[Although the great toe of the adult human subject may be 
thus thumb-like in function, an important difference between 
the hallux and pollex exists, in the inconstancy in relation 
to the former of an opponens muscle, such as is present in the 
manus, and more generally in both manus and pes of the 
anthropoid Apes. The act of grasping by the human hallux 
differs from that by the pollex in being one of mere adduction 
and closer apposition of the first and second digits. | 
The cousins Sarasin have pointed out, that in the Veddah’s 
foot the great toe stands apart from the other toes, and that the 
last four metatarsals are turned towards the first one more than 
in a European foot. The whole foot is also flatter, as can be 
observed in the living state. [In dealing with this comparison 
allowance must be probably made for the use of the boot.] A more 
important distinction, from the comparative anatomical point of 
view, 1s that the tarsus is markedly shorter and narrower than that 
of the European. If 100 be taken as the length of the second 
metatarsal in a European, then 163 would represent the length 
of the tarsus; in the Veddah it is 152, in the Gorilla 145, and 
in the Chimpanzee 113, so that the tarsus is found to decrease 
in length as we descend in the series. A similar diminution in 
breadth is also recognisable. 
According to Pfitzner, whose accurate observations on the 
variations in the human pedal skeleton are of special interest, the 
variations in the proportions of the foot, eg. in the length of the 
metatarsals and phalanges, are far greater than those of the 
hand. This applies especially to the great toe and its 
metatarsal; and correlatively, the ento-cuneiform is much more 
hable to variation than are the meso- and ecto-cuneiform. The 
so-called Lisfrane’s line is also Hable to variation in its course, 
and this especially apphes to the third tarso-metatarsal articula- 
tion. The latter does not as a rule continue the hne of the 
fourth tarso-metatarsal articulation, but makes an angle with it, 
consequent upon the mode of articulation between the ecto- 
cuneiform and the fourth metatarsal, which is prolonged back- 
wards. Here, as well as in the hallux, we have to deal with 
recent variation (Pfitzner). The great toe is in men not only 
absolutely but relatively longer than in women, and this is 
true of the thumb also,—a slight confirmation of the well-known 
saying that women represent the conservative and men the 
