ANTHROPOLOG Y. 
I7I 
occasion so often to mention, that the lower animals retain 
permanently forms that are only transitory in the higher. 
We see further examples of this principle in the receding 
of the forehead and jaws, which are only exhibited by 
the skulls of the higher races in their embryonic or un- 
developed condition, in the learning of the child to walk, and 
in the development of speech. The erect position of man 
is often regarded as an objection to his having descended 
from a lower animal. But as it is evidently an advantage 
for man to use his hands for grasping, etc., but his feet to 
stand and walk upon, we can understand how, through the 
Struggle for Existence, etc. this division of labor was 
brought about. The view of the erect position having been 
gradually assumed by man is confirmed by such facts as 
the creeping on all-fours of the baby and the shuffling 
unsteady gait of the young child. The baby,at the first 
month, uses its foot like a hand, and it is well known that 
some savage people retain the mobility of the big toe, using 
it as a thumb and the other toes as fingers; further, the 
unsteady sidelong step of the child learning to walk is 
seen in the semi-erect gait sometimes assumed by the 
Gibbon and Gorilla. The young Chimpanzee, walking along 
hand-in-hand with his keeper, resembles so strongly a little 
negro learning to walk, that it is impossible not to recog- 
nize their distant cousinship. In a word, the transitory 
stages through which an individual man passes in learning 
to walk represent the stages through which man in general 
has passed in assuming the erect position, the transitory 
stages being permanently retained in the lower animals. 
It is admitted by all that articulate speech is peculiar to 
Man. The possession of this faculty, however, does not 
seem to be inconsistent with the view of his animal descent. 
It is well known that animals communicate their ideas by 
means of touch, sounds, etc.: thus, the Dog barks in differ- 
ent ways, expressive of pain, anger, joy, despair, entreaty. 
