MAN'S PLACE IN NATURE 



461 



characteristic of early childhood, is a simian trait. According 

 to Jeffreys Wyman, when the foetus is about an inch in length, 

 : 'the great toe is shorter than the others, and instead of being 

 parallel to them, is projected at an angle from the side of the 

 foot, thus corresponding with the permanent condition of this 

 part in the Quadrumana." 



The great grasping power of young babies is well known, 

 and this is likewise a simian trait. 

 Dr. Louis Robinson has shown that 

 very young babies will support their 

 own weight, by holding to a hori- 

 zontal bar for a period of half a 

 minute to two minutes. In all cases 

 "the thighs are bent nearly at right 

 angles to the body and in no case 

 did the lower limbs hang down and 

 take the attitude of the erect posi- 

 tion " (Fig. 291). 



The study of embryonic develop- 

 ment shows also that the tail in 

 man and ape alike is at a certain 

 stage of development longer than the 

 legs, as in the monkeys and other 

 lower mammals. In this stage, ac- 

 cording to Romanes, "the tail ad- 

 mits of being moved by muscles 

 which later on dwindle away." 

 Sometimes, however, these muscles 

 persist through life. 



The vermiform appendix is like- 

 wise more developed in the human 



embryo than in the adult, a fact which holds in regard to 

 vestigial structures generally. As already stated in Chapter 

 XX (discussion of vestigial structures), Wiedersheim has re- 

 corded in man 180 structural reminiscences of his descent from 

 the lower animals. All the facts of this class point to a common 

 origin of man and apes, and an earlier community of origin 

 with other mammals and with other vertebrates, the most 

 primitive traits allying all of them with the fishes. 



Paleontology has comparatively little to offer, but that little 

 is decisive. The life habits of men and monkeys are singularly 



FIG. 291. An infant three 

 months old supporting its 

 weight for over two minutes; 

 the attitude of the lower 

 limbs is strangely simian. 

 (From Romanes; after an in- 

 stantaneous photograph.) 



