Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1871-03-01
OUR DISTINGUISHED ANCESTRY.

Darwin, in his new work, "The
Descent Of Man." thus traces the
origin OF the human race:
As soon as some ancient member in
the great series Of the Primates came,
owing to q change in the manner Of
procuring substance, or to q change in
the conditions of its native country, to
live somewhat less on trees and more
on the ground, its manner of progress
sion would have been modified; and
in this case il would have had 10 be-
come eithermore strictly quadrupedal
or bipedal. Balloons frequent billy
and rocky districts, and only from
necessity climb up high trees; and
they have acquired almost the gait Of
a dog. Man alone has become a biped;
and we can, think, partly see how
he has come to assume his erect atti-
tude, which forms one Of the most
conspicuous differences between him
and his nearest allies. Man could not
have attained his present dominant
position in the world without the use
of hands, which are so admirably
adapted to act in obedience to his will.
As Sir c. Bell insists, "the hand sup
plies all instruments, and by its cor
respondence with the intellect gives
him universal dominion But the
hands and arms could hardly have
become perfect enough to have man
ufactuTed weapons, or to have hurled
stones and spears with a true aim, as
long as they were habitually used for
locOmOtion and for supporting the
whole weight OF the body, or as long
as they were especially well adapted,
rs previously remarked, for climbing
trees. Such rough treatment would
also have blunted the sense Of touch,
on which their delicate use largely
depends. From these causes alone II
would have been an advantage to man
to become a biped but, for actions, II
is almost necessary that both arms
and the whole upper part Of the body
should be free and he must for this
end stand firmly on his feet. To gain
this great advantage, the feet have
been rendered fat and the great toe
peculiarly modified, though this has
entailed the loss Of power of apprehen-
sion. It accOrds with the principle
Of the division Of physiological labor,
which prevails throughout the ami
NAL kingdom, that, as the hands be-
came perfected for prehensiOn, the
feet should have become perfected for
support and lOeomOtiOn. With some
savages however, the foot has not
altogether lost its prehensive power,
as shown by their manner Of climb
ing trees and of using them in other
ways.
The slight corporeaI strength Of
man, his little speed, his want OF nat
ural weapons dc, are more than
counterhaianced, firstly by his intel
lectual powers, through which he has,
while still remaining in a barbarous
state, formed for himself weapons,
tools, &c, and secondly by his social
qualities, which led him TO give aid
to his fellOw-men, and to receive it in
return. No country in the world
sbounds in a greater degree with dan
gerOus beasts than Southern Africa
no country presents more physical
hardships than the Arctic regions;
yet one Of the puniest races, namely,
the Bushmen, maintain themselves
in Southern Africa, as do the dwarfed
Esquimaux in the Arctic regions. {
The early progenitOrs of man were,
no doubt, inferior in intellect, ard |
probably in social disposition, to the /.
lowest existing savages F; but it is quite I
conceivable that they might have ex-
listed, or even fiourished, If, while
they gradually lost their brute-like /
powers, such as climbing trees, &c,
they at the same time advanced in |
intellect. But granting that the pro-
genitors Of man were far more help |
4 4
savages. If they had inhabited some (
warm continent, or large island, such 4
as Australia, or New Guinea, or Bor-
ueo (the latter island being now ten 1
anted by the orang), they would not 1
have been exposed to any special |
danger. In an area as large as one of I
these Islands, the competition between
tribe and tribe would have been suffi- ]
eient, under favorable conditions, to 1
have raised man, through the survival |
of fittest, combined with the inherit
ed effects Of habit, to his present high 4
position in the organic scale.
At the period and place, whenever
and wherever it may have been, when
man first lost his hairy covering, he
inhabited a hairy country;
and this would have gone favorable
for frugiferOus diet, on which, judg-
ing from analogy, he subsisted. We
are far from knowing how long ago it
was when man first diverged from the
Caterhine stock; this may have
occurred at an epoch as remote as the
EOcene period for the higher apes
had diverged from the lower ape as
early as the Upper Miocene period, as
shown by the existence of the DryO-
pithecUs. We are also quite ignorant
At how rapid rate organisms, wheth-
er high or low by the scale, may, IN
der favorable circumstances, be mOdi-
fed; we know, however, that some
have retained the same form during
IN enormous lapse Of time. From
what we see going on under domesti-
,atiOn, we learn that within the same
period some of the descendants of the
anne species be not at all changed,
'ome a little, and some greatly
changed.