Abbeville progress. (Abbeville, Vermilion Parish, La.) 1913-1944, 1914-01-10
MAN MADE MISTAKE
Penalties Caused by the Upright
Position Are Shown.
German Scientists Point Out the
Heavy Cost to Humanity for
Standing Position-Exper-
ments Prove Virtue Of Lo-
comotion on All Fours.

comotion on All Fours.
Three OF Germany's famous scien-
lists have been making experiments
DO prove that humanity makes a great
mistake in walking upright instead of
Oh all tours. Thereby. they declare
man brings on himself many physical
evils from which the more sensible
and less aspiring horse and dog are
free.
When man first stood on his hind
legs he disturbed the whole equlli-
brium Of his organism; and since then
he has been trying in vain TO adapt
his architecture ANA organs to his uu-
natural carriage. As he has failed he
has brought on himself weakness and
disease.
One of the first to occupy himself
with this question was Prof Ernst
Haekel, the Jena biologist and Oar
winian 1t has now been carried
much further by the experiments
which Dr. II. Gerhart has lectured on
at the Berlin University Polyctinical
institute.
Dr. Gerhart placed quadrupeds in
similar position. and observed them.
y typical test was made with fox
terrier, which stood and walked on its
hind legs for seven hours a day for
IS weeks The terrier was then CON
pared with an ordinary dos. EXamu-
alton showed that the change had rad
Ically transformed the terriers auaj-
omy. I'm order TO counterbalancc the
tendency to fell forward the dos had
continually bent its spinal column
backward The result was - marked
defamation Of the vertobrae. stand
ing upright had also deiormed the
thOraN and pelyis. The bones of The
hind legs had bent forward in way
suggesting ricketts, or degeneration OF
the bone.
The internal organs also showed
changes. The left lung had fallen
slightly; the heart was enlarged ow-
ing TO the constant eXertion OF stand
ing as a biped, and it had turned round
partly on its axis. The liver. stom-
ach and kidneys had also receded
further from the head. In other
words, she dog had grown closer to
the human type.
Certain penalties caused by the up
right carriage are shown by DIR. Ernest
kl0tz of Leipzig. 1t was plainly in
tended, he says. that the spinal col
umn should be horizontal; and that
all vital and easily injured organs,
such as the heart and stomach, should
hang downward from it and be pro-
tected by it. The spinal column
he says, lis nothing but roof of
bone" 1t is not at all intended to
stiffen the body into an upright car
riage. When man went four footed,
with his organs pendent from his spi-
nal column, all the organs were in ex-
actly defined positions as regards one
another.
When he began to go upright these
organs tended to sag and fall down
ward and thus disturbed their func-
tons. This caused many ailments,
and particularly digestive complaints,
which no animal suffers from These
complaints have been q cause of
weakness to man and instead of re-
turning to an all four attitude he has
for millions of years past been trying
to adapt himself t. the new conditions.
But he has not altogether succeeded,
and is still suffering from the. dis
turbed eGuipoise.
Most marked is the fact that the hui
man legs have not adapted themselves
to be mans only support. II even
seems that in civilized countries the
adaptive process has come to stop
and as a result of the failure of two
legs to do the work of four patologi-
cal reformation of the sole of the foot
is going on.
Today man unconsciously bankers
after his lost position of quadruped.
This is seen by the attitudes he takes
during sleep. Numerous scientific
tests show that the regenerative eff
feet of sleep both on body and mind
is greatest when a man sleeps face
downward as do the majority of ami
mails. Nightmares, sleep drunken
ness" brain pressure" and other abb
normal sleep conditions are never ex-
perienced by a man sleeping in this
position. They are caused by the gen.
uine biped attitude of sleeping on the
back. Sleeping on the back with the
limbs outstretched, is so unnatural
that the lower animals can he tpmDO- /
rarily paralyzed by fixing them in that |
position.
In short. mans upright carriage, I
which he regards as his unique dis |
tinction and glory, is merely a psy /
blunder, and it will remain /
SO until man has perfectly adapted /
himself to it, Unluckiiy, there is rea-
son to think that the perfect equipoise /
will never be attained.