206 THE DESCENT OF MAN. Part I. 



been derived. We should thus be justified iu believing 

 that at an extremely remote period a group of animals 

 existed, resembling in many respects the larvae of our 

 present Ascidians, which diverged into two great 

 branches — the one retrograding in development and 

 producing the present class of Ascidians, the other rising 

 to the crown and summit of the animal kingdom by 

 giving birth to the Vertebrata. 



We have thus far endeavoured rudely to trace the 

 genealogy of the Vertebrata by the aid of their mutual 

 affinities. We will now look to man as he exists ; and 

 we shall, I think, be able partially to restore during 

 successive periods, but not in due order of time, the 

 structure of our early progenitors. This can be effected 

 by means of the rudiments which man still retains, by 

 the characters which occasionally make their appear- 

 ance in him through reversion, and by the aid of the 

 principles of morphology and embryology. The various 

 facts, to which I shall here allude, have been given in 

 the previous chapters. The early progenitors of man 

 were no doubt once covered with hair, both sexes 

 having beards ; their ears were pointed and capable of 

 movement ; and their bodies were provided with a tail, 

 having the proper muscles. Their limbs and bodies 

 were also acted on by many muscles which now 

 only occasionally reappear, but are normally present 

 in the Quadrumana. The great artery and nerve of 

 the humerus ran through a supra-condyloid foramen. 

 At this or some earlier period, the intestine gave forth 

 a much larger diverticulum or caecum than that now 

 existing. The foot, judging from the condition of the 

 great toe in the foetus, was then prehensile; and our 

 progenitors, no doubt, were arboreal m their habits, 

 frequenting some warm, forest-clad land. The males 



