THE PULLMAN HERALD — JULY 14, 1900.
NO USE FOR LEGS ☆ Aversion to Physical Locomotion
Will in Time Make Them Superfluous.
Prof. Yung, of the University of Guef, Switzerland, entertains great fears concerning the future of our lower limbs. This sage is of the opinion, says the New York Herald, that within the next thousand years human beings will have forgotten how to use their legs, and that these limbs, if evolution will not do away with them, will serve as mere ornaments to the rest of the body. Prof. Yung states that at the present age human beings show a decided aversion to personal or physical locomotion, and this is more manifest every time a new automatic traveling instrument is invented and rendered practical. Steam, electricity, cable power and the different velocipede machines all bear an influence over us and create a dislike for walking, and the future generations will likely have the convenience of steerable airships at their windows and electric automobiles at their doors, and these conveyances will be so cheap that almost everyone can own them, and this means the doom of our legs!
The latter will be regarded as superfluous appendages, no use will be made of them, and who knows but that they may disappear altogether? But so much more will our arms develop in length and strength. These are the cruel laws of evolution, and it will be due to their pranks that future generations will again resemble the apes. There will come another epoch of short legs and long arms.
From— Pullman Herald. (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.)), 14 July 1900. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.
