How the World Makes Its Living (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: m THE SUPREMACY OF MAN The supremacy of man is due in large measure to the development of his hands and fingers, enabling him to grasp, clutch, push and pull, pick up things, and tear things apart. The bird uses its beak with wondrous skill to many ends: mouth and paws, trunk and feet and tail of reptile and quadruped, and the prehensile organ of the monkey serve many purposes; but no other living being has an organ of such varied serviceability as the hand of man. Through the use of the hand he progressed to the use of the tool. The savage who used his hands alone used bodily organs provided without his volition: the savage who used a club employed a tool the efficiency of which he perceived. The difference between the one and the other lies in the application of human intelligence. Step by step he learned to use heavy stones as tools and sharp stones as tools. With the heavy stones he pounded and in time learned to grind the grain; with the sharp stones he made spears to kill the animals that served as food, and knives to cut and scrape the hides that served as clothing. He learned to make pots, nets, and baskets. With the nets he caught birds and fishes; in the baskets he carried roots, nuts, and fruit; in the pots he kept food and drink from one meal to another, from one day to another. Thus man learned to lay by a store of food and so obtained the time for effort in other directions. Such advance furthered the maintenance of existence with economy of effort. He gained the time and the opportunity for the extension of activity, for fashioning things in greater number and variety. When with the bow and the net game and fish were provided for the needs of several days, the savage was not obliged to spend portions of every day in the pursuit of food, but had time f...