The Descent of Man

only have endowed the 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 being discussed in a later 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 a Fuegian in defending himself, or in
killing birds, requires the most consummate
perfection in the correlated action of the muscles
of the hand, arm, and shoulder, and, further,
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 co-adaptation of numer-