ME. ST. GrEOEGrE MIVAET ON THE SKELETON OF THE PEIMATES. 
363 
Uebereinstimmung mit der ‘ menschlichen Hand ’ als mit irgend einer terminaler Abthei- 
lung der Extremitaten in der ganzen Saugethierreihe besitzt, und dass in der That nur 
mehr oberflachliche Formahnlichkeiten mit dem menschlichen Fusse vorkommen. — Die 
OEDNUNG DEE QuADEUMANEN 1ST DAHEE E1NE VOLLKOMMEN BEEECHTIGTE ” *. 
The result of my examination, on the contrary, convinces me that the so-called 
“ hinder hand,” as well anatomically as physiologically, far more agrees with the human 
foot than with the human hand, and that it agrees with the latter only in more super- 
ficial points f. Also that the old term Primates is far preferable J to the name 
Quadrumana, which is not applicable exclusively to Apes and Lemuroids, whatever 
definition be accepted of the term “ hand.” 
If we accept as our definition of the word “ foot,” “ an extremity in which the hallux 
forms the fulcrum in standing or walking ” §, then Man alone has a pair of feet; and if 
at the same time we define the hand as an unguiculate extremity more or less prehen- 
sile, with four or five complete digits, the innermost of which may or may not be 
opposable, then unquestionably Apes and Lemuroids have no feet, but four hands, and 
no one using such definitions could be justly blamed for speaking of those animals as 
quadrumanous, though the epithet should then be extended to others which are very 
different. 
But Dr. Lucae, without any such preliminary qualification, states broadly that both 
anatomically and physiologically the posterior extremity of Apes far more nearly 
resembles the human hand than the human foot. 
He does so on the following grounds || : — 
1. The absence of the tarso-metatarsal arch in the foot of Apes, the inclined upper 
surface of the astragalus, and the support of the body by the anterior row of tarsal 
bones, the first and fifth metatarsals, and the toes, but not by the heel. 
2. The short tarsus, no longer exceeding the metatarsus and toes ; the greater rotation 
in the tarsal joint, and the hinge-joint formed by the metatarsals with the tarsus. 
3. That the antero-posterior, dorso-plantar sections, “ sagittalen Durchschnitten ,” are 
not parallel, but approximate to each other towards the sole. That all five metatarsals 
are not united together at their heads by ligaments, but only four of them, the fifth being 
free ; also the form of these heads, which are but seldom, as in Man, provided with 
“ entwickelte Hemmungfidchen .” 
4. That the digits are long and mostly longer than the metatarsals ; that the first toe is 
shorter than the second ; that the second, however, is smaller than the third or even 
than the fourth. 
* Loc. cit. p. 323. 
t As justly observed by Professor Huxley (Man’s Place in Nature, p. 91). 
± It is not on anatomical grounds, however, that I would base my preference for the term Primates. 
§ “ The great toe, which forms the fulcrum in standing or walking, is perhaps the most characteristic 
peculiarity in the human structure ; it is that modification which differentiates the foot from the hand, and 
gives the character to his order ( Bimana ).” — Owen on the Anatomy of Yertebrates, vol. ii. p. 553. 
|| Lucae, loc. cit. p. 321-323. 
MDCCCLXVII. 3 D 
