138 
THE DESCENT OF MAN. 
Part I- 
“ tion could only have endowed tlie savage with a brain 
“ a little superior to that of an ape.” 
Although the intellectual powers and social habits of 
man are of paramount importance to him, we must not 
underrate the importance of his bodily structure, to which 
subject the remainder of this chapter will be devoted. 
The development of the intellectual and social or moral 
faculties will be discussed in the follow ing chapter. 
Even to hammer with precision is no easy matter, as 
every one who has tried to learn carpentry will admit. 
To throw a. stone with as true an aim as can a Fuegian in 
defending himself, or in killing birds, requires the most 
consummate perfection in tire correlated action of the 
muscles of the hand, arm, and shoulder, not to mention 
a fine sense of touch. In throwing a stone or spear, and 
in many other actions, a man must stand firmly on his 
feet ; and this again demands the perfect coadaptation of 
numerous muscles. To chip a flint into the rudest tool, 
or to form a barbed spear or hook from a bone, demands 
the use of a perfect hand ; for, as a most capable judge, 
Mr. Schoolcraft , 60 remarks, the shaping fragments of 
stone into knives, lances, or arrow-heads, shews “ extra* 
“ ordinary ability and long practice.” We have evidence 
of this in primeval men having practised a division of 
labour; each man did not manufacture his own flint 
tools or rude pottery ; but certain individuals appear to 
have devoted themselves to such work, no doubt re- 
ceiving in exchange the produce of the chase. Archaeo- 
logists are convinced that an enormous interval of time 
“ natural selection) unreservedly to Mr, Darwin, allhough, as is well 
“ known, he struck out tho idea independently, and published it, 
“ though not with the same elaboration, at tho same time.” 
60 Quoted by Mr. Lawson Tait in his “ Law of Natural Selection,” 
— ‘Dublin Quarterly Journal of Medical Science,’ Feb. 1S69. Dr. 
Keller is likewise quoted to the same effect. 
