Nature's Teachings: Human Invention Anticipated by NatureWood, J. G. (John George)
History
Nature's Teachings: Human Invention Anticipated by Nature
Wood, J. G. (John George)
Inventions; Natural history
He specially mentions the use of the wheels, and, by dissolving a little
carmine in the water, had the pleasure of seeing the coloured granules
swept into the mouth by the current caused by the cilia through the
jaws, and so into the stomach.
USEFUL ARTS.
CHAPTER I.
PRIMITIVE MAN AND HIS NEEDS.--EARTHENWARE.--BALL-AND-SOCKET
JOINT.--TOGGLE OR KNEE JOINT.
Contrast between Savagery and Civilisation.--Manufacture of
Weapons.--Earthenware of Art.--Sun-baked Vessels.--Earthenware of
Nature.--Nest of Pied Grallina.--Analogy with the Babylonish
Brick.--Nest of the Oven-bird.--A partitioned Vessel.--Necked
earthenware Vessels.--Nests of Eumenes, Trypoxylon, and
Pelopœus.--Proof of Reason in Insects.--The Ball-and-socket
Joint.--“Bull’s-eye” of Microscope.--The human
Thigh-bone.--Vertebræ of the Serpents and their Structure.--The
Sea-urchin and its Spines.--Legs and Antennæ of Insects.--The
Toggle or Knee Joint, and its Use in the Arts.--The hand
Printing-press and the Toggle-joint.--The human Leg and Arm.--Power
of the natural Toggle-joint.--Fencing and Boxing.--Heads of
Carriages.--“Bowsing” of Ropes.--Leaf-rolling Caterpillars.
In the primitive ages of Man the aids to civilisation were very few and
very rude. Some of them, especially those which relate to hunting and
war, have already been mentioned, and we now have to deal with some of
those which bear upon domestic life.
Here we are in some little difficulty, for it is not very easy to draw
the line where domestic life begins, or the mode in which it shall be
defined. We may at all events connect domestic life with a residence of
some sort, and may, in consequence, neglect all such primitive savages
as need no domestic implements.
Such, for example, are the few surviving Bosjesmans of Southern Africa,
not one of whom ever made a tool or an implement, or looked beyond the
present day. The genuine Bosjesman can make a bow and poison his arrows,
and he can light a fire; but there his civilisation ends. He cannot look
beyond the present hour, he has not the faintest notion of making a
provision for the future, nor did his wildest imagination ever compass
the idea of a pot or a pan.
He kills his prey, and, if hunger be very pressing, he will eat it at
once without waiting for the tedious ceremony of cooking; or at the best
will just throw the meat upon the fire, tear it to pieces with his
teeth, and swallow it when it is nothing but a mass of bleeding flesh,
charred on the outside, and absolutely raw within. The Bosjesman has not
even a tent which he can call his own, any bush or hole in the ground
answering for a house as long as he wants it, and then being exchanged
for another.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account