Physical Evolution of ^Ian 577 



Again the rebound actions that the Capuchin monkey was 

 not shown but evolved for itself, when often practised, became 

 the initial stages with primitive man in the formation and use 

 by hand of the boomerang, the arrow with its bow, the sling, 

 and related primitive weapons. The use of the club as a hand- 

 tlu'usting instrument, by hand-sharpening of its end, started 

 the Pacific Islanders' weapon that in other lands gave rise to 

 the bayonet. The arrow and the thrown stone started the 

 more and more skillfully and artistically fashioned darts, 

 spears, and javelins. Thus the wood, the stone, the bronze, 

 and the iron age succeeded each other, during which the hand 

 was increasing its cunning, and reflexly the brain its mental 

 stimuli received. So registers were recorded, and proenvironal 

 responses were made in steadily progressive complexity. 



With the discovery of explosive materials and the mixing of 

 these by the hand, a new era in relation to iron began. Now 

 the hand, accustomed in relation to the eye and the thermotac- 

 tic sense to chain and to use fire, melted, fashioned, welded, 

 loaded, and fired the gun that struck wonder into the mind, by 

 projecting a missile at rapid rate and with impressive accuracy 

 to a great distance. We need only to visit a modern arsenal 

 factory to learn how hundreds of human hands, by labor and 

 by stored brain energy, are fashioning a breeched and rifled 

 gun that will project a huge mass of metal eight to twelve 

 miles. 



The brain of the Neanderthal man who used his stones and 

 clubs has evolved into the brain of the arsenal factory direc- 

 tor or his assistants, who condense so to speak the efforts and 

 potentialities of hundreds of hands into the formation of a 

 modern gun. More truly, more scientifically even, it might 

 be said, that the simpler action and reaction motions that 

 began with stone-throwing have branched out into hundreds 

 of distinct hand actions, that the highly educated brain uses 

 and correlates into one complex compounded resultant in the 

 finished gun. 



Again we might trace the history of man's use of farinaceous 

 foods. The primitive savage, like the monkey still, gathered 



19 



