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On The Antiquity Of Man, Roland Schmidt

MCV/Q, Medical College of Virginia Quarterly

Man is now lord of the earth and of the beasts and flowers, but he took millions of years to achieve his dominion. Two events more than others made man capable of his exercise of power. 1) A slowly achieved adaptation of man himself increased his potentialities far beyond those of other animals. The first step was man's gradual assumption of the erect posture. This put him on his peculiarly successful evolutionary path. It freed his hands and opened the way for the development of the central nervous system which made man unique in his capabilities. 2) A late revolution …