Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 July 1892 — OUR FEET MADE FOR CLIMBING. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OUR FEET MADE FOR CLIMBING.

The Sole of a New-Born Baby’s Foot Sltowfl Thlo Clearly. In the current Humber of the Nineteenth Century Dr. Louis Robinson, in an article on “The Meaning of a Baby’s Footprint,” says: “If we were to endeavor to prove design from the study of the various parts of the elaborate machinery' of bones, muscles, and tendons revealed by dissection, our investigations might well end in a conclusion that some sort of design was indicated, but it would be a design which plainly had in view the purpose of climbing trees rather than of oifterra flrma." It is probable, it appears, that scientific investigators of the dim future will conclude from the structure of the humad fooVthit the man of the present epoeh* lived among the branches of trees, though well able to progress on the ground. While the bones of the foot and their arrangement indicate a fitness to bear weight from above, the muscles and tendons entirely bear out the view that men were designed for tree life. These could not, it is said, have been made for anything but arboreal climbing, as many of them are unnecessary for terrestial motion and nature does nothing that is unnecessary. This, of course, is only another proof that we are related to the great apes. Horses, camels, and other nonarboreal animals, most of which are hoofed, have feet of a robust mechan-

Ism, without fine tendinous cords and muscles, snch as those of men and the arboreal quadrumana possesses. The bulk of the apes, as would that of men, renders necessary a different apparatus from that which enables a cat to run up a tree. In respect to feet the new-born child exhibits many more points of resemblance to the quadrumana than the adult human being. An accompanying illustration shows the sole of such a foot covered with lines nearly identical to those of the hand. When tlie toes are bent downward these become deep creases, whicb goes to prove that they are the places where the skin folds to facilitate the act of grasping. The toes are much more mobile than those of adults. The four outer toes can be bent downward so as to show a distinct knuckle. The great toe can be turned Inward across the sole, and the foot then looks very much like a clinched fist. Many children can almost make thegreat toe (or thumb) touch the little toe. An Irritation of the skin of the sole causes an instant response of the grasping mechanism, exactly as a tickling of the palm causes the fingers to close upon it. The cut printed here was originally obtained by an ingenious device. Dr. Robinson covered a tender infant’s foot with a mixture of lampblack, soap, syrup, and blue-black Ink. Then he wiped it gently and applied a sheet of moderately flexible paper supported by a soft pad to the sole. The act of wiping caused the foot to assume the grasping action and the creases were made plainer. This is surely a pretty idea which mothers may avail theihselves of. They can preserve on impression of their babies’, feet when they were quadrumanous animals. The creases begin to disappear at the age of 14 months and in adults they are barely visible. The deep crease, which corresponds to that on the hand which palmists call the line of the heart, is the only one that remains distinct. The lumbricals are the strongest evidence of handlike origin of the toot. These are short strips of flesU about three inches in length, whicll arise from the four divisions of the long flexor muscle of the toes and pass forward to the inner sides of the four outer toes, where they are inserted in the part of the toe nearest foot. These are useless for anything but tree-climbing, and they are very highly developed in gorillas. Thosm animals, too, have the soles of their hind arms creased after the manner of new-born children. It is interesting to note that this complicated-design of the foot for arboreal purposes has remained perfect through so many hundred generations of disuse. It is probable that a proper training would enable a child to live among the branches of a forest as comfortably as a gorilla. We encase our feet in thick shoes, therebv supplying artificially what nature has given to the hoofed or truly terrestrial animals.

FOOT OF A NEW-BORN INFANT.