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. For
quadrupeds must of necessity bend their anterior limbs inwards that
they may serve in locomotion, for they use them as feet. Not but
what even among quadrupeds there is at any rate a tendency for such as
are polydactylous to use their forefeet not only for locomotion but as
hands. And they are in fact so used, as any one may see. For these
animals seize hold of objects, and also repel assailants with their
anterior limbs; whereas quadrupeds with solid hoofs use their hind
legs for this latter purpose. For their fore limbs are not analogous
to the arms and hands of man.
It is this hand-like office of the anterior limbs which explains why
in some of the polydactylous quadrupeds, such as wolves, lions,
dogs, and leopards, there are actually five digits on each forefoot,
though there are only four on each hind one. For the fifth digit of
the foot corresponds to the fifth digit of the hand, and like it is
called the big one. It is true that in the smaller polydactylous
quadrupeds the hind feet also have each five toes. But this is because
these animals are creepers; and the increased number of nails serves
to give them a tighter grip, and so enables them to creep up steep
places with greater facility, or even to run head downwards.
In man between the arms, and in other animals between the
forelegs, lies what is called the breast. This in man is broad, as one
might expect; for as the arms are set laterally on the body, they
offer no impediment to such expansion in this part
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