170 ZOOLOGICAL PHILOSOPHY 



adopted and which have become peculiar to the individuals of his 

 species. 



As a matter of fact, if some race of quadrumanous animals, especially 

 one of the most perfect of them, were to lose, by force of circumstances or 

 some other cause, the habit of climbing trees and grasping the branches 

 with its feet in the same way as with its hands, in order to hold on to 

 them ; and if the individuals of this race were forced for a series of 

 generations to use their feet only for walking, and to give up using 

 their hands hke feet ; there is no doubt, according to the observations 

 detailed in the preceding chapter, that these quadrumanous animals 

 would at length be transformed into bimanous, and that the thumbs 

 on their feet would cease to be separated from the other digits, when 

 they only used their feet for walking. 



Furthermore, if the individuals of which I speak were impelled by 

 the desire to command a large and distant view, and hence endeavoured 

 to stand upright, and continually adopted that habit from generation 

 to generation, there is again no doubt that their feet would gradually 

 acquire a shape suitable for supporting them in an erect attitude ; 

 that their legs would acquire calves, and that these animals would 

 then not be able to walk on their hands and feet together, except with 

 diflSculty. 



Lastly, if these same individuals were to give up using their jaws 

 as weapons for biting, tearing or grasping, or as nippers for cutting 

 grass and feeding on it, and if they were to use them only for mastica- 

 tion ; there is again no doubt that their facial angle would become 

 larger, that their snout would shorten more and more, and that finally 

 it would be entirely effaced so that their incisor teeth became vertical. 



Let us now suppose that a quadrumanous race, say the most perfect, 

 acquired through constant habit among all its individuals the con- 

 formation just described, and the faculty of standing and walking 

 upright, and that ultimately it gained the supremacy over the other 

 races of animals, we can then easily conceive : 



1. That this race having obtained the mastery over others through 

 the higher perfection of its faculties will take possession of all parts 

 of the earth's surface, that are suitable to it ; 



2. That it will drive out the other higher races, which might dispute 

 with it the fruits of the earth, and that it would compel them to take 

 refuge in locahties which it does not occupy itself; 



3. That it will have a bad effect on the multipHcation of allied 

 races, and will keep them exiled in woods or other deserted localities, 

 that it will thus arrest the progress of their faculties towards per- 

 fection ; whereas being able itself to spread everywhere, to multiply 

 without obstacle from other races and to live in large troops, it will 



