different from that by which
brute forms were evolved. Mr. Wallace[299] considers that "Natural
Selection" alone could not have produced so large a brain in the savage, in
possessing which he is furnished with an organ beyond his needs. Also that
it could not have produced that peculiar distribution of hair, especially
the nakedness of the back, which is common to all races of men, nor the
peculiar construction of the feet and hands. He says,[300] after speaking
of the prehensile foot, common without a single exception to all the apes
and lemurs, "It is difficult to see why the prehensile power should have
been taken away" by the mere operation of Natural Selection. "It must
certainly have been useful in climbing, and the case of the baboons shows
that it is quite compatible with terrestrial locomotion. It may not be
compatible with perfectly easy erect locomotion; but, then, how can we
conceive that early man, _as an animal_, gained anything by purely erect
locomotion? Again, the hand of man contains latent capacities and powers
which are unused by savages, and must have been even less used by
palaeolithic man and his still ruder predecessors. It has all the appearance
of an organ prepared for the use of civilized man, and one which was
required to render civilization possible." Again speaking of the "wonderful
power, range, flexibility, and sweetness of the musical sounds producible
by the human larynx," he adds, "The habits of savages give no indication of
how this faculty could have been developed by Natural Selection; because it
is never required or used by them. The singing of savages is a more or less
monotonous howling, and the females seldom sing at all. Savages certainly
never choose their wives for fine voices, but for rude health, and strength
and physical beauty. Sexual selection could not therefore have developed
this wonderful power, which only comes into play among civilized people. It
seems as if the organ had been prepared in anticipation of the future {279}
progress of man, since it contains latent capacities which are useless to
him in his earlier condition. The delicate correlations of structure that
give it such marvellous powers, could not therefore have been acquired by
means of Natural Selection."

[Illustration: FIBRES OF CORTI.]

To this may be added the no less wonderful faculty in the ear of
appreciating delicate musical tones, and the harmony of chords.

It matters not what part of the or