THE DESCENT OS ORIGIN OF MAN 77 



mirably adapted to act in obedience to Hs will. Sir C. Bell" 

 insists that "the hand supplies all instruments, and by its 

 correspondence with the intellect gives him universal domin- 

 ion. " But the hands and arms could hardly have become 

 perfect enough to have manufactured weapons, or to have 

 hurled stones and spears with a true aim, as long as they 

 were habitually used for locomotion and for supporting the 

 whole weight of the body, or, as before remarked, so long 

 as they were especially fitted for climbing trees. Such 

 rough treatment would also have blunted the sense of touch, 

 on which their delicate use largely depends. From these 

 causes alone it would have been an advantage to man to 

 become a biped; but for many actions it is indispensable 

 that the arms and whole upper part of the body should be 

 free ; and he must for this end stand firmly on his feet. To 

 gain this great advantage, the feet have been rendered flat; 

 and the great toe has been peculiarly modified, though this 

 has entailed the almost complete loss of its power of prehen- 

 sion. It accords with the principle of the division of physi- 

 ological labor prevailing throughout the animal kingdom, 

 that as the hands became perfected for prehension, the feet 

 should have become perfected for support and locomotion. 

 With some savages, however, the foot has not altogether 

 lost its prehensile power, as shown by their manner of climb- 

 ing trees, and of using them in other ways. " 



If it be an advantage to man to stand firmly on his feet 

 and to have his hands and arms free, of which, from his pre- 

 eminent success in the battle of life, there can be no doubt, 

 then I can see no reason why it should not have been ad- 

 vantageous to the progenitors of man to have become more 

 and more erect or bipedal. They would thus have been 



" -'The Hand," etc., "Bridgewater Treatise," 1833, p. 38. 



" Hackel has an excellent discussion on the steps by which man hecame 

 a biped; "Natiirliche Schopfungsgeschiohte, " 1868, s. 507. Dr. Biichuer 

 ("Conferences sur la Theorie Darwinienne, " 1869, p. 135) has given good 

 cases of the use of the foot as a prehensile organ by man ; and has also written 

 on the manner of progression of the higher apes, to which I allude in the fol- 

 lowing paragraph; see also Owen ("Anatomy of Vertebrates, " vol. iii. p. 71) on 

 this latter subject. 



