The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-01-09
WILL HUMAN LEGS DIsAPPEARP

WILL HUMAN I6sS O46AFE GA1r
 A contemporary notes that walking is fast becoming a lost art in the large cities. Time was-and not very long ago when those who did not keep their own horses and carriages must walk or go to the expense of hiring a conveyance. but that is largely a thing of the past The expense of a public hack or carriage forced most people to walk to and from their places of business, or to and from any other portion of the city. but now when a person can go from almost any portion of city to almost any other DOT ton for a nickel or less. they do not walk any more. As The Minneapolis Journal says of the average city business man: ''TIe waddles out to the car in the morn- ing and will stand still and freeze rather than stir his languid blood up by pacing off a few blocks"
 No doubt this is largely true fin all cities where there is a capable street railway system. It is 90 convenient and easy to get on the car and ride, that walking is fast coming into disfavor with most city men and women. and it Is hardly to be doubted that the change Is not for the best. There is no better or more heaIth-giving exercise than walk ing. and if 1t should become obsolete, 1t will certainly work an injury to the hu- man race. In the country people still walk. but in the cities it will become a thing of the past, it is to be feared.
 There Is another point besides health and strength to be considered. Physiol- ogists tell us that any limb or member of the human body which is not used will become atrophied and eventually disap- pear. Some of the scientists tell us that when man was an anthropoid. living in trees as the monkeys do now. he had a tail like a monkey, but when he passed that period and became an upright, land walking animal. the tail gradually dis appeared. because there was no need for 1t. So they tell us that the original horse. some millions of years ago, had five toes to enable him better to walk over the soft earth without sinking. These toes disappeared because they were no longer needed. and the solid hoof came on. An- other familiar instance is seen in the com
 mon tadpole. Tn its early stage of exist ence it is a fish and requires its tail to swim with. but as its legs develop and are brought into tse the tail is absorbed because it is no longer needed. And so those who have made study of such things teach us that the continued non- use of any member will eventually cause 1t to disappear. Will man, some thous- ands or millions of years hence, be with out legs. just as he is now without a ed of human beings in our time with well-developed tails That is breeding back to long past ages. And occasionally a child Is born without legs. Is that anticipatory of what is coming?
 We must confess that human beings without legs would present an unsightly appearance to the present race, but that Is because we are so accustomed to bi- pedal mon and women. Doubtless in the days when tails were the prevailing mode. man without one would have been jeered at and ricicpled for being out of the fashion, and so. when a few aeons have passed. a human being with legs will be an anomaly. It is possible, how ever. that conditions will always require men and women to do some walking. and their legs will not disappear entirely. but will become of secondary importance, like the front legs of kangaroo. and will not possess the length. strength or shapeliness they now do. But perhaps there's no need to look forward to the time when shoes will not be needed, for the day is e long way off.