The Gorilla's Foot

Abstract

THE rare condition to which Prof. Sydney Smith directs attention has been regarded as a relapse to a Simian stage in the evolution of man's foot. As Prof. Smith explains in his paper in the Journal of Anatomy, the “thumb-like” digit of this human foot represents not the whole, but only a half of the normal great toe. The cleft which separates the thumb-like digit from the rest of the foot does not correspond to the fork between the great toe and sole of a monkey's foot, but represents an abnormal cleft between the two halves of the great toe. The other or buried half of the great toe is represented by the first of the five digits shown in the photograph. The separated digit in such cases represents a spurious “thumb.”