ABSTRACT
Human beings qualify on both counts: maturity at birth and the ability of antibodies to gain access to the unborn young. Man’s upright carriage may be constant source of moral satisfaction, but it has certain serious mechanical drawbacks. Man is unique among four-legged animals in being able to stand erect, on the flat of his feet, and to balance him in that position. To cope with the new forces man inherits only the standard outfit of muscles and ligaments, and the muscular bracing of the neck and lumbar region leaves much to be desired. Man’s upright stance has incomparable advantages, perhaps all in providing for his principal physical asset, manual dexterity, but it takes its toll in the mechanical vulnerability of the spine. The question is why the rabbit is so accomplished in wound healing and the human being so strikingly inept; the answer turns upon an understanding of the mechanism of healing as it occurs in a rabbit’s skin.
