98 THE WHENCE AND THE WHITHER OF MAN 



characters that the chimpanzee's or orang's brain can 

 be structurally distinguished from man's. 



The facts of anatomy, at least, are all against us. 

 Struggle as we may, be as snobbish as we will, we can- 

 not shake off these poor relations of ours. Our adult 

 anatomy at once betrays our ancestry, if we attempt 

 to deny it. Read the first chapter of that remarkable 

 book by Prof essor Drummond on the "Ascent of Man," 

 the chapter on the ascent of the body, and the second 

 chapter on the scaffolding left in the body. The tips 

 of our ears and our rudimentary ear muscles, the hair 

 on hand and arm, and the little plica semilunaris, or 

 rudimentary third eyelid in the inner angle of our 

 eyes, the vermiform appendage of the intestine, the 

 coracoid process on our shoulder-blades, the atlas 

 vertebra of our necks to say nothing of the coccyx at 

 the other end of the backbone many malformations, 

 and a host of minor characteristics all refute our denial. 



If we appeal from adult anatomy to embryology the 

 case becomes all the worse for us. Our ear is lodged 

 in the gill-slit of a fish, our jaws are branchial arches, 

 our hyoid bone the rudiment of this system of bones 

 supporting the gills. Our circulation begins as a veri- 

 table fish circulation ; our earliest skeleton is a noto- 

 chord ; Meckel's cartilage, from which our lower jaw 

 and the bones of our middle ear develop, is a whole 

 genealogical tree of disagreeable ancestors. Our glan- 

 dula thyreoidea has, according to good authorities, 

 an origin so slimy that it should never be mentioned 

 in polite society. The origin of our kidneys appears 

 decidedly vermian. Time fails me to read merely the 

 name of the witnesses which could be summoned from 

 our own bodies to witness against us. 



