58 THE DESCENT OF MAN. 



by its correspondence with the intellect gives him universal 

 dominion." But the hands and arms could hardly have 

 become perfect enough to have manufactured weapons, or 

 to have hurled stones and spears with a true aim, as long as 

 they were habitually used for locomotion and for supporting 

 the whole weight of the body, or, as before remarked, so 

 long as they were especially fitted for climbing trees. Such 

 rough treatment would also have blunted the sense of 

 touch, on which their delicate use largely depends. From 

 these causes alone it would have been an advantage to man 

 to become a biped,; but for many actions it is indispensable 

 that the arms and whole upper part of the body should be 

 free; and he must for this end stand firmly on his feet. To 

 gain this great advantage, the feet have been rendered flat; 

 and the great toe has been peculiarly modified, though this 

 has entailed the almost complete loss of its power of pre- 

 hension. It accords with the principle of the division of 

 physiological labor, prevailing throughout the animal 

 kingdom, that as the hands became perfected for prehen- 

 sion, the feet should have became perfected for support 

 and locomotion. With some savages, however, the foot 

 has not altogether lost its prehensile power, as shown by 

 their manner of climbing trees and of using them in other 

 ways. * 



If it be an advantage to man to stand firmly on his feet 

 and to have his hands and arms free, of which, from his 

 pre-eminent success in the battle of life, there can be no 

 doubt, then I can see no reason why it should not have been 

 advantageous to the progenitors of man to have become more 

 and more erect or bipedal. They would thus have been 

 better able to defend themselves with stones or clubs, to 

 attack their prey, or otherwise to obtain food. The best 

 built individuals would in the long run have succeeded 

 best and have survived in larger numbers. If the gorilla 

 and a few allied forms had become extinct, it might have 

 been argued, with great force and apparent truth, that an 



* Hackel has an excellent discussion on the steps by which man 

 became a biped: "Natiirliche Schopfungsgeschichte," 1868, s. 507. 

 Dr. Bilchner (" Conferences sur la Theorie Darwinienne," 1869, p. 

 135) has given good cases of the use of the foot as a prehensile organ 

 by man ; and has also written on the manner of progression of the 

 higher apes, to which I allude in the following paragraph ; see also 

 Owen (" Anatomy of Vertebrates," vol. iii, p. 71) on this latter 

 subject 



