IN BORNEAN FORESTS [chap. 



locomotion was both possible and advantageous. In primitive 

 anthropomorphs, if the necessity of escaping from a foe was 

 experienced in a country covered with forest, the way of escape 

 was manifestly by climbing up trees. If, instead, the ground 

 was bare, safety was sought by flight, and the main efforts must 

 have been directed to getting over the ground by the use of the 

 hind limbs. In these efforts to progress bipedally, the muscles 

 which are attached to the pelvis were certainly those most put in 

 action, and this would account for their greater development, with 

 the result of still further facilitating the erect posture. 



As the assumption of an erect posture has more especially differ- 

 entiated Man from monkeys, it is but natural that the conformation 

 of the pelvis, and the development of the muscles which are attached 

 to it, should constitute one of the principal morphological distinc- 

 tions between Man and anthropomorphs, because a basin-shaped 

 pelvis and largely developed gluteal muscles are a consequence of 

 the erect posture. 



Another most important result derived from the assumption of 

 an erect posture is, I hold, the great development which the brain 

 has been able to acquire from the favourable position which the 

 cranium has thus attained. The brain coming to be in the vertical 

 line, and not outside the centre of gravity, there is nothing to 

 hinder a large increase in the volume and weight of this organ. 



Again, the hand being no longer used as a foot (if Man is supposed 

 to be descended from a terrestrial rather than from an arboreal form) 

 has been able to perfect itself in another direction, and to become 

 the executive organ of the brain, placing Man, thus specially en- 

 dowed, in a position far superior to that of all other animals. 1 



It is obvious that for the erect posture a primitive anthropomorph 

 must have needed a broad foot. Now such a structure and 

 the peculiarities above mentioned can only have been assumed 

 in a country where pedestrian locomotion was easy. For this reason 

 it appears to me very improbable that primitive Man can have 

 originated in the eminently forestal region to which Borneo belongs, 

 a region which could not only never have promoted any aptitude 

 for running or bipedal progression, but also could never have made 

 him feel the need of a terrestrial (as opposed to an arboreal) exist- 

 ence. I therefore believe that neither in Borneo nor in the neigh- 



1 The character which principally distinguishes the human hand from 

 that of anthropoids is the perfect opponability of the thumb to the index. Very 

 singular in this respect is the coincidence of such a conformation, so far as 

 regards its mechanical effects, with the action of the maxilla and mandible 

 of a granivorous bird, in which the bill has undoubtedly attained such a 

 conformation by use, and by the necessity of collecting seeds and grains 

 of plants. Why should not the stimulus caused by the necessity of collecting 

 seeds, small tubers, molluscs, and other small food objects, have caused 

 in man the opponabilitv of the two first digits of the hand ? 



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