The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1894-12-19

dren are indebted to monkeys. They
possess in common with their adults a
rudimentary tail hidden beneath the
skin, but this is not fact that every
one can verify on the instant. Yet
those who have the care OF children
can easily see for themselves the scar
which the loss of the tail has still left
on children's bodies-a scar which is
curiously similar to what would OBJ
tain after amputation OF tail. Just
at the base of the vertebral column
exactly where the tail would protrude
through the flesh, IL il were function
ally active-is deep circular depres-
siSn, sufficient almost for the insertion
OF the little finger. In young babies
it is very noticeable; and nurses, while
wondering what purpose it serves,
abuse it as a place which is difficult
to wash. In older children it gradu-
ally becomes shallower, and in those
about five or seven years old it may or
may not be shown. That it marks
place where tai! formerly protruded
in our ancestors there can be no doubt
from its shape and its position.
Other characters, however, tell the
same tale of adaptation. The pro-
portion in length between the arms
and legs OF baby when first born is
very different to what obtains later in
life.
In the method of using its hands
the baby shows to the full its descent
from arboreal ancestors. When it
wishes to take hold of anything, alike
glass or flower pot, it does not, like
an adult, put the hand round IL, or
even put the thumb inside to use as a
lever.
On the contrary, it places all the
fingers inside, makes no use OF the
thumb, and clasps the rim of the
flower pot between the fingers and the
palm of the hand. This is exactly the
action which would be acquired from
arboreal ancestors; in going from
bough to bough they would take their
hands palm first, and would strike
from above downward, grasping the
bough with the fingers. Such IS the
action of an infant picking up cup.
1t is probable that from our ances-
tors excessive use of bough-grasping
that our babies inherit q certain in
ability to move the fingers with free
dom or to extend the hand, especially
il the least degree cold. The power to
extend the fingers perfectly straight
is oftentimes not obtained by children
six or seven years of age.
LULLABY BABY ON THE TREE TOP"
1t is remarkable how much unnec-
essary suffering is infiictsd on infants
and children because parents fail to
recognize the ancestry from "ani-
mails" and consequently the instincts,
different from those of adults, which
children have inherited.
Thus DIR. Louis Robinson has point
ed out that as soon as children are able
to shift for themselves in bed, they
go to sleep on their stomachs with
their legs curled up under them; and
n L. - lxfl a. Ir.,
pedal ancestors. Experience shows
that il mothers would only recognize
this ancestry the mothers would have
far more comfortable nights and better
tempered, healthier children.
Even the very manner in which
babies are got off to sleep-by rocking
in the arms or in a CRADLES an in
heritance of arboreal or monkey-like
ancestors, because the rocking is an
imitation OF the to- and-fro swaying of
the branches, and such swaying would
be the natural accompaniment of
sleep with arboreal jewellers. Any
rhythmic motion seems to leave q
marked impression on organisms. 1t
would, therefore, be reasonable to con-
clude that the effect of thousands of
years of association-as in the case OF
rocking with sleep in arboreal dwell
lers-would still be found to influence
had been abandoned.
Nowhere is a stage of former arbo-
real life, with its consequent climb
ing instinct, manifested more coDspic-
uously than in the insane desire OF an
infant to climb up stairs.
As soon as crawling is an accom-
plishment the climbing of stairs is at
tempted. Remain on the level and
crawl about rooms the child will not; |
net I-a fnr N
climb with loud crows of delight 1t
is better to let the child climb; even a |
fall down the whole flight of stairs |
only checks the climbing mania tenn |
porariIy, in order that the infant may |
loudly express its disapprobation of its |
own clumsiness, and may vent Is an |
ger in bowls.
An instinct held so consciously can
not be regarded as something fortui- |
tous. Darwin considered that the |
tree-climbing propensity of boys was
a relic of monkey ancestors, but he |
made no observation on the stair |
climbing instincts of infants.
INHERIT STEALING FROM MONKEYS. |
Another ssanimar relic which ex-
lists in children is an instructive de- |
sire for stealing, especially for steal
ing fruit, which, however hard and /
unripe, seems to give the child pleas
ure.
Stealing certainly points to the time
when every animal had to depend on |
its own exertions for what food it got, |
and when the readiest method OF OBJ
tanning such food was to appropriate
without quest on whatever it might |
come across.
With the above another childish |
trait may advantageously be COM
pared-namely, the habit Of taking |
things to bed, especially such articles
as the child may be attached to; but
there is also a desire to take things for
fear of other children obtaining them,
and when q child takes off to bed such
articles as 3 collection OF clothes,