88 SAURIAN BIPEDS 



Association in 1893. In this paper the learned doctor 

 deals with the erect posture of man, which, unique as 

 it is among vertebrates, he regards as being one of 

 the main factors hi the intellectual supremacy of the 

 human race. No other animal, he points out, has 

 ever succeeded in completely divesting its anterior 

 limbs of their primary functions of support and loco- 

 motion, thereby setting them free for manipulative 

 and prehensile purposes. The development of the 

 human hand out of a fore-foot, until it became the 

 most perfect mechanical organ hitherto produced by 

 nature, stimulated, and, in turn, was quickened by, 

 the mental faculties. 'From the first moment,' says 

 Dr. Munro, ' that the being recognised the advantage 

 of using a club or a stone in attacking his prey, or de- 

 fending himself from his enemies, the direct incentives to 

 a higher brain-development came into existence.' The 

 selection of the kind of stone best adapted for cutting 

 purposes required a mental act just as deliberate as the 

 construction of a typewriter or the application of 

 electricity : hand and brain reacted one upon the other, 

 mutually stimulating each other to processes of thought 

 and to action, ever becoming more complex and better 

 sustained. 



Now, this is no place to inquire closely into the 

 validity of Dr. Munro's proposition, involving as it 

 does the whole question between exoteric or inspired 

 intelligence and esoteric mental evolution. But a 

 recent visit to the Natural History Museum at Brussels, 

 and inspection of the skeletons of the gigantic saurians 



