The Doctrine of Evolution: Its Basis and Its ScopeCrampton, Henry Edward
Science
The Doctrine of Evolution: Its Basis and Its Scope
Crampton, Henry Edward
Evolution
Every human infant is bow-legged at birth, and the natural position of its
curved limbs is like that of the gorilla's, for the soles of the feet are
turned toward one another. Again, the so-called great toe is at first
shorter than the others, and for a time it retains the power of free
movement that indicates a handlike character of the lower limb in the
ancestor. Many savage human races, however, whose feet remain unshod, make
use of the primitive grasping power of the foot which the higher races
lose completely. An Australian and Polynesian can pick up small objects
with the foot very much as we may with the hand.
Among the wonderful reminiscent characters displayed by the human infant
is the firm clasping power of the hand, which it possesses for a time
after birth and which enables it to hang suspended for several minutes
from a stick placed in its grasp. The muscles which enable the infant to
do this gradually dwindle, so that the two-year-old child can hang
suspended for only a few seconds. This grasping muscle is a heritage from
the ape, where there is an obvious necessity for the newborn individual to
have a firm hold upon the hairy coat of its tree-climbing mother. When the
newborn child hangs in this way, it bends its curved lower limbs so that
the soles of the feet are turned toward one another, thus increasing its
resemblance to the ape.
Let us realize that these curious relics found in so many places in the
framework of man are not unique, and that they are reduced counterparts of
larger and more valuable structures in the ape. Unless evolution is true,
they have absolutely no sensible reasons for existence. Science prefers
the evolutionary explanation of their occurrence because this explanation
is more in harmony with the facts known about other organisms, and it is
more reasonable than any other.
* * * * *
When we dealt with the general doctrine of natural transformation, it
appeared that the evidence of embryology was in many respects more cogent
and conclusive than that derived from the comparative study of animal
structures. In the case of man, as before, no one could demand any surer
or more convincing proof that an organic mechanism with one structure can
change into an organic mechanism with a different structure, than the
obvious facts of development. The embryo, which is not an infant or an
adult, becomes an infant which must work its way onward by the gradual
accumulation of slight changes here and there and everywhere in its
anatomy, until it becomes mature. Each and every one of us has actually
undergone the process of organic change in becoming what we are, and we
cannot deny the reality of such a process without challenging the evidence
of our senses.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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