136 THE DESCENT OF MAN. [Part L 



mirably adapted to act in obedience to his will. As Sir 

 C. Bell 66 insists, " the hand supplies all instruments, and 

 by its correspondence with the intellect gives him univer- 

 sal dominion." But the hands and arms could hardly 

 have become perfect enough to have manufactured weap- 

 ons, 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, as 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 it would have 

 been an advantage to man to have become a biped ; but 

 for many actions it 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 flat, and the 

 great-toe peculiarly modified, though this has entailed the 

 loss of the power of prehension. It accords with the prin- 

 ciple of the division of physiological labor, which prevails 

 throughout the animal kingdom, that, as the hands became 

 perfected for prehension, the feet should have become per- 

 fected for support and locomotion. With some savages, 

 however, the foot has not altogether lost its prehensile 

 power, as shown by their manner of climbing trees and 

 of using them in other ways. 66 



If it be an advantage to man to have his hands and 



65 "The Hand, its Mechanism," etc. 'Bridgewater Treatise,' 1833, 

 p. 38. 



66 Hackel has an excellent discussion on the steps by which man be- 

 came a biped: 'Natiirliche Schopfungsgeschichte,' 1868, s. 507. Dr. 

 Biichner ('Conferences sur la Theorie Darwinienne,' 1869, p. 135) has 

 given good cases of the use of the foot as a prehensile organ by man ; 

 also on the manner of progression of the higher apes to which I allude 

 in the following paragraph : see also Owen ('Anatomy of Vertebrates,' 

 vol. Hi. p. 71) on this latter subject. 



