ELEMENTS OF ORIGINALITY 189 



"Adaptation" and "habit" are not the primary 

 cause of the erect posture of man. Man's erect 

 carriage is a question of dynamics. The great toe is 

 an effect, merely an accommodation to the demands 

 of the system for equiHbrium in the upright position. 

 It had to develop to permit the posture that is 

 appropriate to the dynamics of the system. 



It is an exceptionable practice, and a mere ex- 

 hibition of ignorance, to try to account for the pe- 

 culiarities of man, such as his erect carriage, on mere 

 "adaptation" and "habit." It is high time that this 

 uncritical and slipshod method be abandoned. 

 A beast is a beast on its fours not because it never 

 formed the habit of walking erect, but because the 

 dynamics of its system do not enable it to take the 

 upright position. Man raises himself, and has the 

 forward look because of the dynamics of his system 

 that are bound up with the size of his brain and mind. 



XXVI. The theory that the length of the period 

 of infancy supplies a standard of measurement for 

 rating the intelligence of a race. 



The length of the period of infancy, that is (as 

 defined), the time required to complete the series of 

 chemical reactions that result in the physiological 

 maturity of the organism, must be conceived — all 

 other things being equal — to be a direct index of the 

 size and complexity of the Z-system of the brain. 



