opposability

In a section where I remark, in relation to the opposability of the thumb, that this unique capacity has elevated us above all other mortal creatures, my purple companion asks in the margin Best word? —

Manuscript 2009

In a section where I remark, in relation to the opposability of the thumb, that this unique capacity has elevated us above all other mortal creatures, my purple companion asks in the margin Best word? —

Archive 2009-09-01 2009

In considering this point, however, it must not be forgotten that the civilized great toe, confined and cramped from childhood upwards, is seen to a great disadvantage, and that in uncivilized and barefooted people it retains a great amount of mobility, and even some sort of opposability.

Essays 2007

Being contrarians, we liked the opposability of both thumbs.

Black Market Kidneys » Thumb Thumbnail 2005

Man is undoubtedly the most perfect of all animals, but he is so solely in respect of characters in which he differs from all the monkey tribe -- the easily erect posture, the perfect freedom of the hands from all part in locomotion, the large size and complete opposability of the thumb, and the well developed brain, which enables him fully to utilize these combined physical advantages.

Scientific American Supplement, No. 344, August 5, 1882 Various

Huxley wrote, a considerable amount of evidence has been collected shewing that partial opposability of the toe in man is not uncommon, and that there is evidence as to a tendency to increase of length of the great toe within historical times.

Thomas Henry Huxley; A Sketch Of His Life And Work 1904

Since Huxley wrote, a considerable amount of evidence has been collected shewing that partial opposability of the toe in man is not uncommon, and that there is evidence as to a tendency to increase of length of the great toe within historical times.

Thomas Henry Huxley A Sketch Of His Life And Work Mitchell, P Chalmers 1900

And the opposability of the great toe is approached in some men, who have great mobility in this organ, and can use it for grasping.

Man And His Ancestor A Study In Evolution Charles Morris 1877

Well, in the first place, everybody who has ever kept a cockatoo or a macaw in domestic slavery is well aware that in no other birds do the claws so closely resemble a human or simian hand, not indeed in outer form or appearance, but in opposability of the thumbs and in perfection of grasping power.

Science in Arcady Grant Allen 1873

Throughout the whole of the quadrumana the foot is prehensile; and a very rigid selection must therefore have been needed to bring about that arrangement of the bones and muscles, which has converted the thumb into a great toe, so completely, that the power of opposability is totally lost in every race, whatever some travellers may vaguely assert to the contrary.

Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection A Series of Essays Alfred Russel Wallace 1868