Ti THE DESCENT OF MAN 



maintains 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 

 remainder of this chapter will be devoted; the development 

 of the intellectual and social or moral faculties being dis- 

 cussed in a later chapter. 



Even to hammer with precision is no easy matter, as 

 every one who has tried to learn carpentry will admit. 

 To throw a stone with as true an aim as a Fuegian in de- 

 fending himself, or in killing birds, requires the most con- 

 summate 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," re- 

 marks, the shaping fragments of stone into knives, lances, 

 or arrow-beads shows "extraordinary ability and long prac- 

 tice." This is to a great extent proved by the fact that 

 primeval men practiced a division of labor; each man did 

 not manufacture his own flint tools or rude pottery, but cer- 

 tain individuals appear to have devoted themselves to such 

 work, no doubt receiving in exchange the produce of the 



"Essay on Man" has been ably criticised by Prof. ClaparMe, one of the most 

 distinguished zoologists in Europe, in an article published in the "Biblioth^que 

 tiniverselle, " June, 18T0. The remark quoted in my text will surprise every 

 one who has read Mr. Wallace's celebrated paper on "The Origin of Human 

 Eaces deduced from the Theory of Natural Selection, " originally published in 

 the "Anthropological Review," May, 1864, p. clviii. I cannot here resist quot- 

 ing a most just remark by Sir J. Lubbock ("Prehistoric Times," 1865, p. 479) 

 in reference to this paper, namely, that Mr. Wallace, "with characteristic un- 

 selfishness, ascribes it {i.e., the idea of natural selection) unreservedly to Mr. 

 Darwin, although, as is well known, he struck out the /idea independently, 

 and published it, though not with the same elaboration, at the same time." 



" Quoted by Mr. Lawson Tait in his "Law of Natural Selection," "Dublin 

 Quarterly Journal of Medical Science," Feb., 1869. Dr. Keller is likewise 

 quoted to the same effect 



