ANIMAL MECHANICS. 



123 



base of the third metacarpal bone, to the tendons of the^. dig. 

 profundus, on their superficial surface." 



This remarkable arrangement of the flexor tendons of the 

 hand is identical with that found in the Macaques, and other 

 monkeys of the Old World, shown in Fig. 17(a). Whether 

 this man was a Macaque passing upwards into a man, or a man 

 passing downwards into a Macaque, must be decided by the 

 reader, according as his sympathies are with Lamarck or 

 Buffon. 



(b). The Quadrumans. — The peculiarities of the thumb in 

 the higher apes have been already alluded to ; in the lower 

 monkeys a remarkable difference is found in the deep 

 flexors of the fingers, between the monkeys of the Old and 

 New Continents. This difference is shown in Fig. 17, in 



a. b. 



Fig. 17. 



which (a) represents the distribution of the flexor tendons in 

 the hand of the monkeys of the Old World, and (b) their dis- 

 tribution in the hand of the monkeys of the New World. If 

 we take the Macaque (Macacus Nemestrinm) (Fig. 17, a), as 

 the type of the Old World monkeys, we find the following 

 arrangement. There is no distinct fl. poll. long, muscle, but a 

 tendon branches off to the thumb, starting from the central 



