VIEWS ON THE EVOLUTION OF MAN 365 



Lamarck again returns to the subject in his Philoso- 

 phie zoologique, which we translate. 



" Some Observations Relative to Man. 



" If man were distinguished from the animals by 

 his structure alone, it would be easy to show that 

 the structural characters which place him, with his 

 varieties, in a family by himself, are all the product 

 of former changes in his actions, and in the habits 

 which he has adopted and which have become special 

 to the individuals of his species. 



" Indeed, if any race whatever of Quadrumana, 

 especially the most perfect, should lose, by the neces- 

 sity of circumstances or from any other cause, the 

 habit of climbing trees, and of seizing the branches 

 with the feet, as with the hands, to cling to them ; 

 and if the individuals of this race, during a series of 

 generations, should be obliged to use their feet only 

 in walking, and should cease to use their hands as 

 feet, there is no doubt, from the observations made 

 in the preceding chapter, that these Quadrumana 

 would be finally transformed into Bimana, and that 

 the thumbs of their feet would cease to be shorter 

 than the fingers, their feet only being of use for 

 walking. 



" Moreover, if the individuals of which I speak 

 were impelled by the necessity of rising up and of 

 looking far and wide, of endeavoring to stand erect, 

 and of adopting this habit constantly from genera- 

 tion to generation, there is no doubt that their feet 

 would gradually and imperceptibly assume a con- 

 formation adapted for an erect posture, that their 

 legs would develop calves, and that these creatures 

 would not afterwards walk as they do now, painfully 

 on both hands and feet. 



" Also, if these same individuals should cease 

 using their jaws for biting in self-defence, tearing or 



