198 Evolution of the Mechanic Arts. 



It is evident that we must seek for the beginnings of the 

 mechanic arts in the brute workl below man. Darwin says : 

 "It has often been said that no animal uses any tool; but 

 the chimpanzee in a state of nature cracks a native fruit, 

 somewhat like a walnut, with a stone. Kengger easily 

 taught an American monkey thus to break open hard palm- 

 nuts, and afterward of its own accord it used stones to open 

 other kinds of nuts, as well as boxes. . . . Another mon- 

 key was taught to open the lid of a large box Avith a stick, 

 and afterward it used the stick as a lever to move heavy 

 bodies. ... In the Zoological Gardens, a monkey which 

 had weak teeth used to break open nuts with a stone ; and 

 I was assured by the keepers that this animal, after using 

 the stone, hid it in the straw, and would not let any other 

 monkey touch it. Here, then, we have the idea of prop- 

 erty ; but this idea is common to every dog with a bone, 

 and to most or all birds with their nests. The Duke of 

 Argyll remarks that the fashioning of an implement for a 

 special purpose is absolutely peculiar to man ; and he con- 

 siders that this forms an immeasurable gulf between him 

 and the brutes. It is no doubt a very important distinction, 

 but there appears to me much truth in Sir J. Lubbock's 

 suggestion, that when primeval man first used flint-stones 

 for any purpose, he would have accidentally splintered them, 

 and would then have used the sharp fragments. From this 

 step it would be a small one to intentionally break the 

 flints, and not a very wide step to rudely fashion them. . . . 

 The anthropomorphous apes, guided probably by instinct, 

 build for themselves temporary platforms ; but as many 

 instincts are largely controlled by reason, the simpler ones, 

 such as this of building a platform, might readily pass into 

 a voluntary and conscious act. The orang is known to cover 

 itself at night with the leaves of the Pandanus ; and Brehm 

 states that one of his baboons used to protect itself from 

 the heat of the sun by throwing a straw mat over its head. 

 In these latter habits, we probably see the first steps toward 

 some of the simpler arts ; namely, rude architecture and 

 dress, as they arose among the early progenitois of man." 



It was in answering tlie question, ''How did social evolu- 

 tion originate ? *' that i\Ir. Fiske proceeded to make his note- 

 worthy contribution to the study of the subject, in which 

 he claimed tliat increasing intelligence in our early ancestors 

 resulted in a prolongation oi the period of infancy among 



