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1886. | The Making of Man. s 499 
assumed the quadrupedal habit, as in the baboon, whose four 
limbs are nearly equal in length. It was forced towards the 
bipedal habit by sheer necessity. On taking the ground surface 
for its place of residence, it was probably obliged to walk erect 
as the only movement to which its structure was well adapted. 
Neither the quadrupedal nor the semi-quadrupedal movement ` 
would have been suited to the proportions of its limbs, and its 
ancestral movement in trees may have been more vertical than is 
common with apes. Its bipedal development may have begun 
while it was still arboreal. 
This erect posture once fully assumed and the arms thus com- 
pletely freed from duty as organs of support, the animal, yet an 
ape, would have had an advantage of the greatest value over its 
“fellow apes, and over all other members of the animal kingdom, 
Nearly all quadrupeds use their limbs to some extent in attack 
and defense. Yet the necessity of resting on these limbs inter- 
feres to a certain extent with this duty. In the animal in ques- 
tion the duty of locomotion being confined to the hind limbs, the 
fore ones were completely set free to be used as weapons. And 
to this power was added that very important one of their pecu- 
liar adaptation to grasping, which enabled the creature to add 
greatly to its natural strength by the use of missile and’ other 
Weapons, | 
‘This advantage has not been confined to man and his progeni- 
tors. The power of the grasping function in this direction is of- 
service to many of the apes, The story of the cocoanut-flinging 
monkeys does not need to be repeated. And it is equally well 
known that the orang, when attacked, will break off fragments of 
branches and shower them to the ground ina rage. But in all 
such cases there is nothing to indicate any precision of aim. 
throwing seems to be done at random. It is probable that the 
are has to be educated to the proper use of missiles, and that to — 
Sain this function it must be freed from other duties. es 
_ There is no positive evidence that any apes use weapons except 
in this manner, The story is told that the chimpanzee will wrest n 
the Spear from the hunter and use it against him. But this story 
needs to be verified. Also the common picture of the oran 
_ Walking erect and supporting itself with a staff is entirely imag- 
native, Nothing of the kind was ever seen in nature. The teeth 
Seem the main dependence of these creatures for purposes of 
