CHAPTER II 



ENORMOUS LENGTH OF THE ERA OF HELPLESSNESS 



When was the birthday of the human race, or the 

 beginning of that enormously long period during 

 which the brute-sense of our first upright mamma- 

 lian ancestry gradually grew into that higher intel- 

 ligence possessed by the first club and missile using 

 men? 



When sexual reproduction among mammalian 

 creatures resembling the quadrumana produced 

 a variation in the entocuneiform bones of their pos- 

 terior extremities, and shifted the occipital foramen 

 magnum to a position a little back of the center of 

 the base of the skull, then was the birthday of the 

 human race and the beginning of the period referred 

 to. For this variation in the entocuneiform bones, 

 in connection with dependent changes in the muscles, 

 tendons, nerves, etc., operating the metacarpals 

 and phalanges, made a pair of big toes out of two 

 opposable thumbs, and transformed a pair of pre- 

 hensile posterior hands into two feet. These served 

 admirably as supports for the body in the upright 

 attitude, but were utterly useless for the grasping 

 of branches. Our ancestors were therefore forced 

 to abandon tree life. How could creatures unable 

 to hold on to branches with their lower extremities 



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