wHaf, II. Manner of Development. 51 



It seems to me far from true that because " objects are grasped 

 * clumsily n by monkeys, " a much less specialised organ of 

 " prehension " would have served them 7 " equally well with 

 their present hands. On the contrary, I see no reason to doubt 

 that more perfectly constructed hands would have been an 

 advantage to them, provided that they were not thus rendered 

 less fitted for climbing trees. We may suspect that a hand as 

 perfect as that of man would have been disadvantageous for 

 climbing ; for the most arboreal monkeys in the world, namely, 

 Ateles in America, Colobus in Africa, and Hylobates in Asia, 

 are either thumbless, or their toes partially cohere, so that their 

 limbs are converted into mere grasping hooks. 71 



As soon as some ancient member in the great series of the 

 Primates came to be less arboreal, owing to a change in its 

 manner of procuring subsistence, or to some change in the 

 surrounding conditions, its habitual manner of progression would 

 have been modified : and thus it would have been rendered more 

 strictly quadrupedal or bipedal. Baboons frequent hilly and 

 rocky districts, and only from necessity climb high trees ; n and 

 they have acquired alfnost the gait of a dog. Man alone has 

 become a biped ; and we can, I think, partly see how he has 

 come to assume his erect attitude, which forms one of his most 

 conspicuous characters. Man could not have attained his present 

 dominant position in the world without the use of his hands, 

 which are so admirably adapted to act in obedience to his will. 

 Sir C. Bell 73 insists that " 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 weapons, 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 before remarked, so long as they 

 were especially fitted for climbing trees. Such rough treatment 

 would also have blunted the sense of touch, on vhich their 

 delicate use largely depends. From these causes alone it would 

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



70 ' Quarterly Review,' April but whether a better climber than 



186'J, p. 892. the species of the allied genera, I do 



11 Jn Hylobates syndactylus, as not know. It deserves notice that 



the name expresses, two of the toes the feet of the sloths, the most 



regularly cohere ; and this, as Mr. arboreal animals in the world, are 



Blyth informs me, is occasionally wonderfully hook-like, 

 the case with the toes of H. agilis, n Brehm, ' Thierleben,' B. i. s. 



lar, and leuciscus. Colobus is strictly 80 



arboreal and extraordinarily active 73 " The Hand," &c. ' Bridge- 



(Brehm, ' Thierleben/ B. i. s. 50), water Treatise,' 1833, p. 38. 



