172 ZOOLOGICAL PHILOSOPHY 



the falls to which the body is rendereji liable by the weight and 

 arrangement of its parts. 



After discussing the questions with regard to the erect position of 

 man, this observer expresses himself as follows : " The relative weight 

 of the head, and of the thoracic and abdominal viscera, gives a forward 

 inclination to the axial Kne of the body, as regards the plane on which 

 it rests ; a line which should be exactly perpendicular to this plane, 

 if standing is to be perfect. The following fact may be cited in support 

 of this assertion : I have observed that children, among whom the 

 head is bulky, the belly protruding and the viscera burdened with fat, 

 find it difficult to get accustomed to standing upright ; it is only at 

 the end of their second year that they venture to trust their own 

 strength ; they continue liable to frequent falls and have a natural 

 tendency to adopt the position of a quadruped " (Physiologie, vol. 

 ii., p. 268). 



This arrangement of parts, as a result of which the erect position 

 is a tiring one for man, instead of being a state of rest, would disclose 

 further in him an origin analogous to that of the other mammals, 

 if his organisation alone were taken into consideration. 

 " In-order to follow out the hypothesis suggested at the beginning 

 of these observations, some further considerations must now be added. 



The individuals of the dominant race in question, having seized all 

 the places of habitation which were suitable to them and having 

 largely increased their needs according as the societies which they 

 formed became larger, had to multiply their ideas to an equivalent 

 extent, and thus felt the need for communicating them to their fellows. 

 We may imagine that this will have compelled them to increase and 

 vary in the same degree the signs which they used for communicating 

 these ideas ; hence it is clear that the individuals of this race must have 

 made constant efforts, and turned all their resources towards the crea- 

 tion, multipUcation and adequate variation of the signs made necessary 

 by their ideas and numerous wants. 



This is not the case with other animals ; for although the most 

 perfect of them such as the Quadrumana mostly hve in troops, they 

 have made no further progress in the perfection of their faculties 

 subsequent to the high supremacy of the race named ; for they have 

 been chased away and banished to wild and desert places where they 

 had Uttle room, and hved a wretched, anxious life, incessantly com- 

 pelled to take refuge in ffight and concealment. In this situation 

 these animals contract no new needs and acquire no new ideas ; their 

 ideas are but few and unvaried ; and among them there are very few 

 which they need to communicate to others of their species. Very 

 few different signs therefore are sufficient to make themselves under- 



