184 ARBOREAL MAN 



came a temporary disability, and in the end, reduction of 

 the family solved the problem. 



The baby of the perfectly adapted arboreal animals 

 of the Primate stock is solitary; but it is a baby very 

 different from that we have pictured in the previous 

 group. The arboreal baby is born immature, and it is 

 singularly dependent upon its mother in the precarious 

 circumstances of life among the branches. There would 

 seem to be no alternative in such a life; the baby must 

 either be born a perfected tree-climber, or it must be 

 a more or less immature creature dependent upon others 

 for its safe conduct about the branches. As a matter 

 of fact, the offspring of the Lemurs and ^lonkeys are 

 born immature and comparatively h'jlpless, save for the 

 power of grasp which is well developed in their hands. 

 Naturally they cannot immediately follow their mother 

 upon her arboreal excursions; and among the Lemurs it 

 is the rule for the young to grasp the mother, and among 

 the Monkeys for the mother to assist by grasping the 

 young. The Simian mother has to carry the baby with 

 her wherever she goes; this, at the outset, is a new factor 

 in the relation of mother and offspring. We may surmise 

 that in this new relation there is given a wider scope for 

 the working of that very primitive display of instinct 

 summed up in the commonly used j^hrase " maternal 

 care." Maternal care is, of course, perfectly well mani- 

 fested in animals situated very differently from those 

 we are studying; it is, in some of its manifestations, a 

 widespread and primitive animal instinct. But the 

 phrase " maternal care " when applied to a mother that, 

 in time of danger, defends a dozen helpless offspring 

 connotes something rather different from its extension 

 to a mother that carries a solitary offspring which clings 

 to her throughout a somewhat prolonged infancy. 



It is to be regretted that observations upon the intimate 

 details of the lives of the Primates in their natural state 

 are not made more frequently by those having the 



