E:MANCIP2VTI0N of the fore -limbs 17 



body weight is temporarily thrown upon its hind-limbs. 

 And, again, in reaching out its fore-limb, the freedom of 

 rotation possessed by the second segment of the limb 

 allows the animal to apply the palmar surface of its 

 " hand " against any new hold which may present itself 

 at almost any angle. 



From such a humble beginning great developments are 

 possible; and here we may observe that, without the 

 apprenticeship served in this lowly clambering, short cuts 

 to tree-climbing have never attained the same ultimate 

 perfection. As arboreal life becomes more complete, the 

 search for a new foothold will become a far more exact- 

 ing business than it is in the mere clambering we have 

 pictured. The more exacting this search becomes, the 

 more will there tend to be developed that most impor- 

 tant factor — the specialization of the functions of the fore 

 and hind limbs. While the animal reaches about with its 

 fore-limb, the hind-limb becomes the supporting organ. 

 With the evolution of this process there comes about a 

 final liberation of the fore-limb from any such servile 

 function as supporting the weight of the body : it becomes 

 a free organ full of possibilities, and already capable of 

 many things. This process I am terming the emancipa- 

 tion of the fore-limb, and its importance as an evolutionary 

 factor appears to me to be enormous. 



It will be noted that in the little picture we have drawn ) 

 of the process, we have, as it were, rescued the fore-limb; 

 rescued it while stil] possessed of all its inherited power . 

 of mobility, saved it from becoming an organ of mere 

 stability, and handed it over to an enterprising mammalian 

 stock to adapt to its needs. ^ 



This picture may seem fanciful, and j^et in reality it 

 is not so. I have thought it worth while to draw it thus, 

 since, without such a picture, there are many things very 

 difficult to understand. I will instance tAvo such cases. 

 We have hurried almost breathlessly over the process 

 we have pictured, in a mental anxiety to arrive at emanci- 



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