Note 29 — II ON THE RELATIONS OF MAN TO THE LOWER ANIMALS.

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 Quadrumanus 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 “bimanous” 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.”