An Introduction to a Biology 



up its steep sides and how the defenders would hurl 

 them back down into the moat below, and there 

 pound them with stones and transfix them with 

 javelins. He who calls up such a picture to his mind 

 sees for himself how early the cunning of man har- 

 nessed to his weapons the auxiliary force of gravity. 

 The bow, the catapult, and the arbalest were sub- 

 sequent utilisations of other auxiliary forces. But 

 the great step in the increase of range was, of course, 

 brought about by the invention of gunpowder. 



That we intuitively think of weapons as part of 

 our arms is shown by the fact that we call them 

 arms, 1 and that we refer to the flying corps, for 

 instance, as a " fourth arm." The whole object of 

 war is to deprive your enemy of the artificial elonga- 

 tion of his arms, to disarm him by killing, wounding, 

 or catching him. All man's offensive and defensive 

 organs are detachable. That is the difference between 

 him and a lion. The only way to disarm the lions 

 in the Zoological Gardens in Antwerp, in case they 

 were released by a shell, was to shoot them. 



8 



It is natural that in the case of weapons the first 

 thing to be done was to increase the range, and the 

 simplest way of effecting this was the utilisation of 

 external forces. But in the case of implements it 

 was not the maximum distance from, but a con- 

 venient proximity to the object which was the 

 desideratum. So that the fashioning of implements 

 had proceeded to great lengths before any other 

 motive force was employed than the energy of man 



1 See Skeat, etymology of arm. 



