MANNER OF DEVELOPMENT. 71 



service to it. For instance, the horns of ruminants and 

 the great canine teeth of baboons appear to have been ac- 

 quired by the males as weapons for sexual strife, but they 

 are used in defense of the herd or troop. In regard to cer- 

 tain mental powers the case, as we shall see in the fifth 

 chapter, is wholly different; for these faculties have been 

 chiefly, or even exclusively, gained for the benefit of the 

 community, and the individuals thereof have at the same 

 time gained an advantage indirectly. 



It has often been objected to such views as the forego- 

 ing, that man is one of the most helpless and defenseless 

 creatures in the world; and that during his early and less 

 well developed condition he would have been still more 

 helpless. The Duke of Argyll, for instance, insists* that 

 ** the human frame has diverged from the structure of 

 brutes in the direction of greater physical helplessness and 

 weakness. That is to say, it is a divergence which of all 

 others it is most impossible to ascrible to mere natural 

 selection." He adduces the naked and unprotected state 

 of the body, the absence of gi*eat teeth or claws for de- 

 fense, the small strength and speed of man, and his slight 

 power of discovering food or of avoiding danger by smell. 

 To these deficiencies there might be added one still more 

 serious, namely, that he cannot climb quickly and so 

 escape from enemies. The loss of hair would not have 

 been a great injury to the inhabitants of a warm country. 

 For we know that the unclothed Fuegians can exist under 

 a wretched climate. When we compare the defenseless 

 state of man with that of apes we must remember that the 

 great canine teeth with which the latter are provided are 

 possessed in their full development by the males alone, and 

 are chiefly used by them for fighting with their rivals; 

 yet the females, which are not thus provided, manage to 

 survive. 



In regard to bodily size or strength, we do not know 

 whether man is descended from some small species, like 

 the chimpanzee, or from one as powerful as the gorrilla; 

 and, therefore, we cannot say whether man has become 

 larger and stronger, or smaller and weaker than his ances- 

 tore. We should, however, bear in mind that an animal 



* ' Primeval Man," 1669, p. 66. 



