At first sight, the termination of the hind limb of the Gorilla looks
very hand-like, and as it is still more so in many of the lower apes,
it is not wonderful that the appellation "Quadrumana," or four-handed
creatures, adopted from the older anatomists* by Blumenbach, and
unfortunately rendered current by Cuvier, should have gained such wide
acceptance as a name for the Simian group. ([Footnote] *In speaking of
the foot of his "Pygmie," Tyson remarks, p. 13:--"But this part in the
formation and in its function too, being liker a Hand than a Foot: for
the distinguishing this sort of animals from others, I have thought
whether it might not be reckoned and called rather Quadru-manus than
Quadrupes, 'i.e.' a four-handed rather than a four-footed animal." As
this passage was published in 1699, M. I. G. St. Hilaire is clearly in
error in ascribing the invention of the term "quadrumanous" to Buffon,
though "himanous" may belong to him. Tyson uses "Quadrumanus" in several
places, as at p. 91... "Our 'Pygmie' is no Man, nor yet the 'common
Ape', but a sort of 'Animal' between both; and though a 'Biped', yet of
the 'Quadrumanus'-kind: though some 'Men' too have been observed to
use their 'Feet' like 'Hands', as I have seen several.") But the most
cursory anatomical investigation at once proves that the resemblance of
the so-called "hind hand" to a true hand, is only skin deep, and that,
in all essential respects, the hind limb of the Gorilla is as truly
terminated by a foot as that of man. The tarsal bones, in all important
circumstances of number, disposition, and form, resemble those of
man (Figure 19). The metatarsals and digits, on the other hand, are
proportionally longer and more slender, while the great toe is not only
proportionally shorter and weaker, but its metatarsal bone is united by
a more moveable joint with the tarsus. At the same time, the foot is set
more obliquely upon the leg than in man.
As to the muscles, there is a short flexor, a short extensor, and a
'peronaeus longus', while the tendons of the long flexors of the great
toe and of the other toes are united together and with an accessory
fleshy bundle.
The hind limb of the Gorilla, therefore, ends in a true foot, with a
very moveable great toe. It is a prehensile foot, indeed, but is in no
sense a hand: it is a foot which differs from that of man not in
any fundamental character, but in mere proportions, in the degree of
mobility, and in the secondary arrangement of its parts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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