6o PHYSICAL BASIS OF CIVILIZATION 



a sitting or prostrate position the lifting, swing- 

 ing, throwing, etc., could be so. It must, if occur- 

 ring at all, in those positions always be on purpose. 

 And purpose presupposes antecedent experience, 

 which is begging the question ; besides, these atti- 

 tudes are not adapted to the successful throwing 

 of missiles. This argument applies equally to sticks 

 and stones. 



The same line of reasoning holds here, a fortiori, 

 which was followed in detail in the matter of sticks, 

 and it leads to the same conclusion ; viz. , that such an 

 assumption is untenable. 



And yet it is a well-known fact that apes use 

 sticks and missiles. Their natural relation to these 

 appliances, however, accounts for this fact in a 

 way which is not applicable to the man -brute. For 

 whether resting or moving in his natural habitat 

 among the aboriginal forests, an ape is distinguished 

 from the two-footed upright brute by generally 

 having one or more of his hands grasping the 

 branches of trees. From the weight of his body or 

 the muscular pressure of his hands, it must fre- 

 quently happen that one of these branches breaks 

 and remains in a hand. Nor would he then be as 

 liable to receive the recoil and consequent per- 

 turbation as the man -brute. For he supports 

 himself by holding on with several hands to various 

 parts of a tree, and when by the breaking of a 

 branch one hand loses its hold, so that the body 

 would be unbalanced, then reflex action causes each 



