habit of walking about, the
less mobility would he have in his toes, so that the thumbs of the
feet, which are already much shorter than the other digits, would
gradually cease to be placed in opposition to the other toes, and to
be useful in grasping. The muscles of its lower extremities would
acquire proportionally greater thickness and strength. Then the
increased or more frequent exercise of the fingers of its hands
would develop nervous masses at their extremities, thus rendering
the sense of touch more delicate. This is what our train of
reasoning indicates from the consideration of a multitude of facts
and observations which support it."[196]

The subject is closed by a quotation from Grandpre on the habits of the
chimpanzee. It is not of sufficient importance to be here reproduced.

Seven years after the publication of these views, Lamarck again returns
to the subject in his _Philosophie zoologique_, which we translate.

"_Some Observations Relative to Man_.

"If man were distinguished from the animals by his structure alone,
it would be easy to show that the structural characters which place
him, with his varieties, in a family by himself, are all the product
of former changes in his actions, and in the habits which he has
adopted and which have become special to the individuals of his
species.

"Indeed, if any race whatever of _Quadrumana_, especially the most
perfect, should lose, by the necessity of circumstances or from any
other cause, the habit of climbing trees, and of seizing the
branches with the feet, as with the hands, to cling to them; and if
the individuals of this race, during a series of generations, should
be obliged to use their feet only in walking, and should cease to
use their hands as feet, there is no doubt, from the observations
made in the preceding chapter, that these _Quadrumana_ would be
finally transformed into _Bimana_, and that the thumbs of their feet
would cease to be shorter than the fingers, their feet only being of
use for walking.

"Moreover, if the individuals of which I speak were impelled by the
necessity of rising up and of looking far and wide, of endeavoring
to stand erect, and of adopting this habit constantly from
generation to generation, there is no doubt that their feet would
gradually and imperceptibly assume a conformation adapted for an
erect posture, that their legs would develop calv