Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1871-02-10
oUR DISTINGUISHED ANCEsTRY.

1
| live somewhat less on trees and more
on the ground, its manner Of progress
ion would have been modified; and in
this case it would have had to become
either more strictly quadrupedal or bi-
pedal. Babboons frequent hilly and
rocky districts, and only from ne
cessity climb up high trees and they
| have acquired almost the gait of dog.
Man alone has become a biped and
We can, think. partly see how he has
come to assume his erect attitude, which
forms one of the most conspicuous diff
ferences between him and his nearest
allies. Man could not have attained
his present dominant position in the
world without the use hands, which are
so admirably adapted to act in obedi-
ence to his will. As Sir c. Bell insists.
''the hand supplies all instruments, and
by its correspondence with the intellect
gives him universe. dominion" But the
hands and arms could hardly have be-
come perfect enough to have manufac-
tured weapons, or to have hurled stones
and spears with a true aim, as long as
they were habitually, used for locomo-
ton and for supporting the whole weight
of the body. or as long as they were es-
pecially well adapted, as previously re-
marked, 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 it would have been an advantage
to man to become a biped; but, for
actions, it is almost necessary that both
arms and the whole upper part of the
body should be free and ne must for
this end stand firmly on his feet. To
gain this great advantage, the feet have
been rendered fiat and the great toe pc
culiarly modified. though this has en-
tailed the loss of power of prehension.
1t accords with the principle of the di-
vision of physiological labor, which
prevails throughout the animal kingdom,
that, as the hands became perfected for
prehension, the feet should have become
perfected for support and locomotion.-
With some savages however, the foot
has not altogether lost its prehensive
power, as shown by their manner of
climbing trees and of using them in
other ways.
In regard to bodily size or strength,
we do not know whether man is de-
scended from some comparatively small
species. like chimpanzee, or from one as
powerful as the gorilla and, therefore,
we cannot say whether man has become
larger and stronger, or smaller and
weaker, in comparison with his progen--
itors. We should, however, bear in
mind that an animal possessing great
size, strength, and ferocity, which, like
the gorilla, could defend itself from all
enemies, would, probably, though not
necessarily, have failed to have become
social and this would most effectually
have checked the requirement by man
of his higher mental qualities, such as
sympathy and love of his fellow-erea-
lures. Hence it might have been an
immense advantage to man to have
sprung from some comparatively weak
creature.
The slight corporeal strength of man,
his little speed, his want of natural
weapons, &c, are more than counter
balanced, firstly by his intellectual pow
ers. through which he has, while still re-
naming IN a barbarous state, formed
for himself weapons, tools, &C., and sec
ondly 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 abounds in a greater degree
with dangerous beasts than Southern
Africa no country presents more phys
ical hardships than the Arctic regions;
yet one of the puniest races, namely,
the Bushmen, maintain themselves in
Southern Africa, as do the dwarfed Es-
quiInaux in the Arctic regions. The early
progenitors of man were, no doubt, in
ferior in intellect, and probably in social
to the lowest existing saw
ages but it is quite conceivable that
they might have existed, or even -four
ished. if, while they gradually lost their
brute-like powers, such as climbing
trees, &C., they at the same time ad-
vanced in intellect. But granting that
the progenitors of man were far more
and defenceless than any ex-
isting savages, ifthey had inhabited some
warm continent, or large island. such
as Australia. or New Guinea, or Borneo
(the latter island being now tenanted by
the orang1, they would not have been
exposed to any special danger. In an
area as large as one of these islands,
the competition between tribe and tribe
would have been sufficient, under favor
able conditions, to have raised man.
through the survival of fttest. combined
with the inherited effects of habit, to his
present high 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
probably inhabited hairy country; and
this would have gone favorable for a
frugiferous diet. on which, judging 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 low
er ape as early as the Upper Miocene
period, as shown by the existence of the
Dryopithecus. We are also quite igno-
rant at how rapid a rate organisms,
whether high or low by the scale, may
under favorable circumstances be modi-
fed; we know, however, that some have
retained the same form during an enor-
nous lapse of time. From what we
see going on under domestication, we
learn that within the same period some
of the descendants of the same species
be not at all changed. some little, and
some greatly changed.