Chap. I. KUDIMENTS. 29 



" Sud ' at Paris ; and in the Grotto of Orrony, the con- 

 11 tents of which are referred to the Bronze period, as 

 " many as eight humeri out of thirty-two were perfo- 

 " rated ; but this extraordinary proportion, he thinks, 

 " might be due to the cavern having been a sort of 

 " ' family vault.' Again, M. Dupont found 30 per cent. 

 " of perforated bones in the caves of the Valley of the 

 " Lesse, belonging to the Keindeer period ; whilst M. 

 "• Leguay, in a sort of dolmen at Argentenil, observed 

 " twenty-five per cent, to be perforated ; and M. Pruner- 

 " Bey found twenty-six per cent, in the same condition 

 " in bones from Vaureal. Nor should it be left unno- 

 " ticed that M. Prnner-Bey states that this condition is 

 " common in Guanche skeletons." The fact that ancient 

 races, in this and several other cases, more frequently 

 present structures which resemble those of the lower 

 animals than do the modern races, is interesting. One 

 chief cause seems to be that ancient races stand some- 

 what nearer than modern races in the long line of 

 descent to their remote animal-like progenitors. 



The os coccyx in man, though functionless as a tail, 

 plainly represents this part in other vertebrate animals. 

 At an early embryonic period it is free, and, as we have 

 seen, projects beyond the lower extremities. In certain 

 rare and anomalous cases it has been known, according 

 to Isidore Geoffroy St.-Hilaire and others, 40 to form a 

 small external rudiment of a tail. The os coccyx is 

 short, usually including only four vertebrae : and these 

 are in a rudimental condition, for they consist, with the 

 exception of the basal one, of the centrum alone. 41 They 

 are furnished with some small muscles ; one of which, as 

 I am informed by Prof. Turner, has been expressly 

 described by Theile as a rudimentary repetition of the 



40 Quatrefages lias lately collected the evidence on this subject. 

 'Kevue des Cours h-'cientifiques/ 1867-1868, p. 625. 



41 



Owen, < On the Nature of Limbs,' 1849, p. 114. 



