Chap. IT. Manner of Development. 49 



making fire, by which hard and stringy roots can be rendered 

 digestible, and poisonous roots or herbs innocuous. This dis- 

 covery of fire, probab]y the greatest ever made by man, excepting 

 language, dates from before the dawn of history. These several 

 inventions, by whichman in the rudest state has become so pre- 

 eminent, are the direct results of the development of his powers 

 of observation, memory, curiosity, imagination, and reason. I 

 cannot, therefore, understand how it is that Mr. Wallace'" main- 

 tains, that "natural selection could only have endowed the 

 " savage with a brain a little superior to that of an ape." 



Although the intellectual powers and social habits of man are 

 of paramount importance to him, we must not underrate the 

 importance of his bodily structure, to which subject the remain- 

 der of this chapter will be devoted ; the development of the in- 

 tellectual and social or moral faculties being discussed in a later 

 chapter. 



Even to hammer with precision is no easy matter, as every 

 one who has tried to loarn carpentry will admit. To throw a 

 stone with as true an aim as a Fuegian in defending himself, or 

 in killing birds, requires the most consummate perfection in the 

 correlated action of the muscles of the hand, arm, and shoulder, 

 and, further, a fine sense of touch. In throwing a stone or spear, 

 and in many other actions, a man must stand firmly on his feet ; 

 and this again demands the perfect co-adaptation of numerous 

 muscles. To chip a flint into the rudest tool, or to form a 

 barbed spear or hook from a bone, demands the use of a perfect 

 hand; for, as a most capable judge, Mr. Schoolcraft,*' remarks, 

 the shaping fragments of stone into knives, lances, or arrow-heads, 



•^^ * Quarterly Review,* April here resist quoting a most just 



1869, p. 392. This subject is more remark by Sir J. Lubbock (' Pre- 

 I'Mlly discussed in Mr. Wallace's historic Times,' 1865, p. 479) in 

 ' Contributions to the Theory of reference to this paper, namely, that 

 Natural Selection,' 1870, in which Mr. Wallace, " with characteristic 

 all the essays referred to in this " unselfishness, ascribes it (i. v. the 

 work are republished. The 'Essay "idea of natural selection) unre- 

 on Man ' has been ably criticised by " scrvedly to Mr. Darwin, although, 

 Prof. Clapar6de, one of the most " as is well known, he struck out 

 distinguished zoologists in Europe, " the idea independently, and pub- 

 m an article published in the " lished it, though not with thj 



Biblioth^que Universelle,' June " same elaboration, at the sam« 



1870. The remark quoted in my " time." 



text will surprise every one who °' Quoted by Mr. Lawson Tait ia 



has read Mr. Wallace's celebrated his ' Law of Natural Selection,' — 



paper on ' The Origin of Human ' Dublin Quarterly Journal of Medi- 



Races deduced from the Theory of cal Science,' Feb. 1869. Dr. Keller 



Natural Selection,' origiially pub- is likewise quoted to the aama 



lished in the ' Anthropoli-gical Re- effect. 

 new.'May 186+, p. olvi.i. 1 cannot 



5 



