Man in tlie Light of Evolution 



velopment of the skeleton, and of something 

 higher, more complex, and of far greater possi- 

 bilities — the nervous system. Swifter locomo- 

 tion, search for food, new surroundings with 

 their possibilities and dangers, made better sense 

 organs very profitable. 



Muscles and sense organs reacted on the ner- 

 vous system and lifted it to a higher plane. The 

 visual eye, capable of seeing images of objects, 

 the most complex and youngest of all the sense 

 organs, appeared. From this time on only those 

 animals which could see could hope to win in 

 the struggle for life and supremacy. 



The front part of the nervous system enlarged 

 under these stimuli and shaped itself into a brain. 



The smaller, lower animals are usually short- 

 lived. The larger vertebrate lived for years or 

 decades. The same experiences came to it again 

 and again, and new emergencies and dangers 

 often confronted it. Life was a series of experi- 

 ments for all our ancestors. Mr. Erasmus Dar- 

 win defined a fool as a man who never tried an 

 experiment. The experimenting animal became 

 in time intelligent. Higher mammals, like dog, 

 fox, elephant, and monkey, are often shrewd. 

 Wits counted in the struggle as well as muscular 



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