1886.) The Making of Man. 495 
motive duty must be retained, and the development of any new 
functional power would be checked. Thus in this respect man is 
4 an anomaly in the kingdom of life. And to this anomalous fea- 
: ture is quite probably due in very considerable measure the pecu- 
liar character of his development. z 
It is very evident, indeed, that the full adoption of the erect 
; attitude gave man an immense motor supremacy over the lower 
animals; for it completely released his fore limbs from duty as 
organs of support—for the first time in the known history of ver- 
4 tebrate life. They were set free to be employed in new methods 
T and to develop new functional „powers, to which the grasping 
ris function, which man inherits from the ape tribe, was an invaluable 
aid. It is to the possession of two limbs which are freed from 
any organic duty other than attack and defense, and which are 
adapted to grasp weapons and tools, that man owes his enormous 
advantage over the lower animals. - It opens to him possibilities 
: which do not exist beneath him, All the forces of nature are at 
ne his command, as soon as he can learn to control them. The first 
: club or Spear he grasped, the first missile he threw, inaugurated 
a new era in the history of life, and opened the way to man’s 
complete mastery. And, so far as we can perceive, this important 
| structural advantage preceded the development of his mental 
: Superiority, and gave the cue to it. ; 
In the vertebrate class below man, there exists but a single ani- 
4 mal form that possesses a limb which is free from duty as an — 
Ey organ of support. This is the elephant, whose nose and upper - 
we lip have developed into an enormous and highly flexible trunk, 
4 with delicate grasping powers. The possession of such an organ 
: has undoubtedly had its share in the marked intellectual develop- _ 
ment of the elephant. Yet this organ is far inferior in its powers 
to the hand and arm of man, while the form, the size and the Kies 
its of this animal stand in the way of its gaining the full _ 
results which might arise from the possession of such an organ © 
™ connection with a better adapted bodily structure. Be 
| As to the evolutionary processes through which man gained the ` 
Peculiar features of his struct „weh int ti g idence in the 
Sting forms of life. In one type of life, and one alone, can w 
Perceive indications of a gradual variation from the quadrupedal — 
towards the bipedal structure. This is the ape type, or rather that of 
the lemurs and apes in conjunction. In all other mammalian ypes 
P a 
o 
