54 2 



The Journal of Heredity 



spring, lays the foundation of the family. 

 "When infancy is brief, the family 

 bond is similariy of short dvnation; and. 

 the period of suckling being ended, 

 there comes a time of expansion of 

 infantile ent'^rpriscs, a time marked by 

 some internecine strife and much par- 

 ental intolerance. It becomes a neces- 

 sity for the mother to repel the young 

 when mammary activity is ended; it 

 devolves upon the father to chastise 

 any possible rivals: and in most large 

 littered animals- the family tie loosens 

 and di- solves as soon as the young are 

 fiillv capalile of fending for them- 

 selves. As the period oi dependence 

 of the solitary offspring becomes mors 

 protracted, the advent of the dissolu- 

 tion of the family is naturally delayed 

 — it may be delayed until the recur- 

 rence of the next natural parental 

 sexual season. This I imagine to be 

 a very important factor. If the bond 

 of the helpless offspring keeps the 

 male in attendance until the next 

 sexual period of the female, there is 

 likel\^ to be a recurrence of the whole 

 jjrocess, and a step towards the perma- 

 nence of their union." 



THE HUMAN BABY 



It is well known chat details of the 

 ancestral life of an animal can often 

 be inferred from a study of it during 

 infancy, and Dr. Wood Jones' chapter 

 on "The Human Baby" is not the 

 least interesting part of his book. Re- 

 calling that the arms of other Primates 

 are longer than their legs, while the 

 reverse is true in man, hs points out 

 that at one stage in the development 

 of the human embryo the arms actu- 

 ally exce'jd the legs in length. Later 

 thj proportions are reversed. Even aL 



birth, however, the baby's legs are 

 relatively short compared to its trunk. 

 The baby's fc.;t resemble those of the 

 anthropoids in being turned inwards, 

 so that the soles can be pressed against 

 each other — this indeed being a common 

 position of rest in an infant as well as in 

 an arboreal anthropoid. When child- 

 ren learn to walk, it is upon the outer 

 sides of their feet that they trust their 

 weight, exactly as the anthropoids are 

 wont to do. It is this inherited ar- 

 boreal foot-poiso which leads children 

 to wear out the outer edges of their 

 shoes first. The remarkable grasping 

 power of a new-born infant is likewise 

 cited as the survival of a trait that 

 possessed life and death importance in 

 the tree-tops. Finally, with reference 

 to the much-talked-about upright pos- 

 ture, the author remarks succinctly 

 that "the human child sits up before 

 it stands; the human stock sat up 

 before it stood." 



But, it may be objected, many other 

 mammals have lived in the trees; why 

 did they not progress as far as the 

 human stock? From what has pre- 

 ceded, the answer is perhaps obvious. 

 Either they took to the trees too late, 

 after they were already specialized (as 

 the squirrels, for instance), or once 

 there they became specialized too far 

 (as the bats, or the apes and monkeys 

 which have four hands instead of two 

 hands and two feet). It need not be 

 pretended that this an.^wer is all- 

 suflficient, yet it undoubtedly contains 

 a large part of the truth. Man's 

 success in evolution must largely be 

 ascribed to the fact that he has (ex- 

 cept in brain) not evolved very far; 

 he is in many respects still amazingly 

 primitive. 



Maine Station Collects Breeding Records 



The Maine state exiJcrinKiil station 

 has been for seme time collecting infor- 

 mation from cattle breeders of the state 

 about their breeding oi)erations. So 

 far this c-oojtcrative ])roject has made 



a\ailal)le data on callle breeding frem 

 \92 different herds, including 3,0^5 cows 

 and 217 bulls. Analysis of this mate- 

 rial should produce some \aJual3le 

 results. 



