TOOLS. 



CHAPTER I. 



The DIGGING-STICK.— spade.— shears and scissors.— chisel 



AND ADZE.— THE PLANE AND SPOKESHAVE. 



The Use of Tools a Distinction between Man and Beast. — All Men, however 

 savage, use Tools, but none of the lower Animals can do so until taught by 

 Man. — Tools needed to break up the Ground. — The Digging-stick of savage 

 Life : its Use and its Efficacy in practised Hands. — Digging-sticks in Nature. 

 — The Heart-urchin, and its Mode of digging in the Sand. — The Spade : 

 its Shapes and Uses. — Natural Spades. — Fore-foot of the Mole and Mole- 

 cricket. — The Aard-vark, the Ant-eater, and the Mattock. — Shears and 

 Scissors a Sign of Civilisation, never being employed by Savages. — Mecha- 

 nical Principle of Scissors, the Inclined Plane, the Lever, and the Catting 

 Edge. — Chinese Shears and the Pruning Scissors. — Use of the Inclined 

 Plane. — The Diagonal Knife of the Guillotine. — The Shears in Iron- works. 

 — The "Drawing Cut" of Swordsmen. — Jaws of the Turtle and Tortoise. — 

 The Snapping Turtle and the Chicken Tortoise. — The Locust, the Cock- 

 chafer Grub, the Gi eat Green Grasshopper, and the "Wart-biter.- — The Leaf- 

 cutter Bees and their .Nests. — The Chisel and Adze. — Structure of Rodent 

 Tooth und Chisel. — Use of ihe hard Plate of Enamel or Steel. — Combination 

 of hard and soft Materials.— Teeth of Hippopotamus and Hy rax.— Principle 

 of the Adze. — Self-sharpening and Self-renewing Tools. — The Plane and 

 Spokeshave. — Principle on which they are made. — The Spokeshave and 

 its Uses. — The " Guard" Razor. — The Hoop-shaver Bee and its Nest. — Its 

 natural Plane, and the Use which is made of it. 



A MONG the many points of distinction between man and the 

 -£*■ lower animals, we may consider the use of tools as one of 

 the principal lines of demarcation. Man stands absolutely 

 alone in this respect. There is no race of savages, however 

 degraded they may be, that does not employ tools of some kind, 

 and there is no beast, however intelligent, that ever used a tool 

 except when instructed by man. 



As to the stories that are told of the larger apes using 

 sticks and stones by way of weapons, they are absolutely with- 

 out foundation, no animal employing any tool or weapon save 

 those given to them by Nature. It is true that a monkey may 



