46 SOCIAL EVOLUTION 



dividual is a recapitulation of the life history of the 

 species. 



During the early life of the human infant there 

 are indications of considerable interest. In the devel- 

 opment of the child after birth the spinal column has a 

 single curve, as it does in apes and monkeys, instead of 

 the S-shaped curve seen in adult human beings. The 

 baby holds its feet in a position characteristic of the 

 apes. 9 For a few weeks after birth, the child has a re- 

 markably strong finger-grip, recalling the strength with 

 which the young apes grasp the mother's hair, as she 

 climbs with them among the trees. The young baby is 

 able to sustain its own weight by its hands. When it 

 hangs in this manner it often shows a position of the 

 legs which are strikingly apelike. 10 



There is much more evidence along anatomical and 

 embryological lines, but the character of this evidence 

 has been sufficiently illustrated. The whole structure 

 of man shows that he has arisen by differentiation from 

 lower vertebrates. There seems to be no scientific rea- 

 son for separating man from the rest of the animal 

 kingdom as regards the processes of evolution. 11 We 

 do not yet know all the stages through which the human 

 body passed in the process of its evolution, and we do 

 not know many of the details by which his mental facul- 

 ties have arisen from the lower condition of mind seen 

 in other vertebrates; but the evidence which we do pos- 

 sess presents no serious reason for believing that the 

 method of their evolution has been different in any 

 fundamental regard from the methods by which the 

 minds and bodies of other animals have been developed. 12 



9 See figure 12. n Metcalf. op. cit., p. 170, 



10 See figure 13. ^ Ibid. 



