An Introduction to a Biology 



nearly have led to his undoing altogether. The in- 

 vention of the detachable limb was made possible 

 by the preservation of the archaic pentadactylous 

 hand of his remote amphibian ancestor. But it 

 seems as if man knew, or the line of life which 

 led to man knew, that man was destined to 

 acquire detachable weapons and implements and 

 armour. For not only the hand but the whole of 

 the body too was left unspecialised, and utterly 

 unprovided with offensive or defensive weapons and 

 useful implements. Man had neither the armour 

 of the crocodile, the portable house of the tortoise, 

 the warm clothing of the bear, the swift hoof of 

 the horse, the horn of the ox, the fangs of the lion, 

 nor poison of the serpent. The non-specialisation of 

 any of his organs as weapons or implements left him 

 utterly defenceless when he was removed from his 

 detachable limbs. Unable to defend himself, he 

 ran to nature for protection and passed much of 

 his life in the dark recesses of caves. Naked and 

 unfurnished in his own person, he had to com- 

 pensate for his lack of natural clothes, weapons, 

 and tools by a super-bestial ingenuity in the in- 

 vention of artificial ores. 



The exercise of this ingenuity would give him 

 a pull over his enemies by sharpening his intelligence 

 in a way already hinted at. The laying down of the 

 tool when done with involves a looking forward to 

 the time when he will want it again ; and the picking 

 of it up, a memory of the use for which it is intended 

 if not of the time when it was laid down. This ex- 

 tension of his attention, forwards and backwards, 

 came to be the chief distinguishing feature of man, 



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