1881,] A Brace of Paradoxes. 663 
man stands, therefore, very low — lower than the cow and 
the pig.” 
We must here point out that a departure from the 
original embryonic type may be in one of two directions ; 
it may be progressive, passing, as the author has above laid 
down, to greater complexity, or it may be retrogressive or 
degenerative, tending towards less complexity. All the 
modifications of the limbs which reduce the number of 
digits are, therefore, cases of degeneration, and the author, 
in pronouncing man’s five fingers or toes a mark of inferiority 
to the structure of the cow or the pig, contradicts what he 
has advanced above. Again, he has admitted the “ oppos- 
ability of the thumbs” as a mark of high specialization. In 
afterwards ascribing superiority to an extremity where the 
digits are undifferentiated, and reduced to two or to one in 
number, he is guilty of a second contradiction. 
Again, in the ruminants, &c., the four extremities are 
scarcely at all differentiated in structure or function. They 
are mere supports, adapted for locomotion. As we pass 
through the Carnivora and the apes to man, we find the two 
pairs of extremities more and more differentiated— a familiar 
instance of man’s superiority which the author has ignored. 
Again, we read that man “ plants the whole sole of his 
foot upon the ground, yet none but the lower Mammalia, 
together with man and his immediate congeners (a formid- 
able exception !) are plantigrade.” Now if man is to stand 
on two extremities only, which Prof. Minot has just 
mentioned as a mark of high specialisation, he must be 
plantigrade ! Here, therefore, is a further case of self- 
contradiction. 
The author proceeds, “ So, too, with his stomach, which 
is so simple as compared with that of a ruminant, and, in- 
deed, is of about the same grade as that of the Carnivora.” 
Surely the stomach of the ruminants is a mere adaptive 
feature suitable for animals which require to consume a 
huge bulk of matter poor in nourishment. But it is im- 
portant to see how Mr. Minot plays fast and loose. In case 
of the foot and hand he proclaims complexity a mark of 
inferiority. In the stomach he holds it to be a sign of 
superiority ! He is consistent only in inconsistency and 
self-contradiCtion . 
Further ; “ It makes a still more forcible impression to 
learn that the human face which we admire when withdrawn 
under a high intelle&ual forehead, is perhaps the most 
remarkable of all the indices that point to man’s inferiority. 
In the mammalian embryo the face is formed under the 
