THE NEW EVOLUTION 



as a living being we at once uncover a whole array 

 of most interesting facts. 



Of these interesting facts perhaps the most impor- 

 tant from the point of view of man as man is that man 

 is the only vertebrate which has a family normally 

 composed of a series of dependent young in all stages 

 of development ranging from newly born and wholly 

 helpless through various stages of decreasing depend- 

 ency to subadult or adult. This serial family of 

 dependent children requires the continuous care of 

 both parents or its equivalent for a long period 

 of years. 



In all the other vertebrates — the other mammals, 

 the birds, the reptiles, the amphibians and the fishes 

 — the young, whether born singly or in a litter or 

 issuing from eggs, are always under normal conditions 

 independent of the parents before new young are born. 



So far as we are able to judge from the actual evi- 

 dence, the use of fire and the use of tools were human 

 attributes from the very first appearance of mankind. 

 It may with reasonable assurance be assumed that the 

 same is true of speech and the use of clothing and of 

 ornaments. There is not the slightest evidence that 

 these human attributes were acquired one by one as 

 man departed more and more widely from an ape- 

 like ancestor. 



While these attributes separate man sharply from 

 the apes, greatly accentuating the distinct and clean- 

 cut, though rather slight, structural differences be- 

 tween man and the apes, they are by no means confined 

 to man. Incredible though it at first may seem, never- 



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