12 The Descent of Man. Part I 



occasionally present in man, which may be called the inter- 

 condyloid. This occurs, but not constantly, in various anthro- 

 poid and other apes/ and likewise in. many of the lower animals. 

 It is remarkable that this perforation seems to have been present 

 in man much more frequently during ancient times than 

 recently. Mr. Busk 51 has collected the following evidence on 

 this head : Prof. Broca " noticed the perforation in four and a 

 " half per cent, of the arm-bones collected in the ' Cimetiere du 

 '"'• Sud/ at Paris ; and in the Grotto of Orrony, the contents of 

 " which are referred to the Bronze period, as many as eight 

 " humeri out of thirty-two were perforated ; but this extraordi- 

 " nary proportion, he thinks, might be due to the cavern having 

 " been a sort of ' family vault.' Again, M. Dupont found thirty 

 "per cent, of perforated bones in the caves of the Valley of the 

 " Lesse, belonging to the Pieindeer period ; whilst M. Leguay, in 

 " a sort of dolmen at Argenteuil, 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 

 ei it be left unnoticed that M. Pruner-Bey states that this con- 

 " dition is common in Guanche skeletons." It is an interesting 

 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, One chief cause seems to be that 

 the ancient races stand somewhat nearer in the long line of 

 descent to their remote animal-like progenitors. 



In man, the os coccyx, together with certain other vertebra 

 hereafter to be described, though functionless as a tail, plainly 

 represent this part in other vertebrate animals. At an early 

 embryonic period it is free, and projects beyond the lower 

 extremities ; as may be seen in the drawing (Fig. 1.) of a human 

 embryo. Even after birth it has been known, in certain rare 

 and anomalous cases, 52 to form a small external rudiment of a 

 tail. The os coccyx is short, usually including only four 

 vertebrae, all anchylosed together: and these are in a rudi- 



50 Mr. St. George Mivart, ' Trans- 52 Quatrefages has lately collected 

 act. Phil. Soc' 1867, p. 310. the evidence on this subject. 'Revue 



51 "On the Caves of Gibraltar," des Cours Scientifiqnes,' 1867-1868, 

 ' Transact. Internat. Congress of p. 625. In 1840 Fleischmann ex- 

 Prehist. Arch.' Third Session, 1869, hibited a human foetus bearing a 

 p. 159. Prof. Wyman has lately free tail, which, as is not always the 

 shewn (Fourth Annual Report, Pea- case, included vertebral bodies ; and 

 body Museum, 1871, p. 20), that this tnis tail was critically examined by 

 perforation is present in thirty-one the many anatomists present at the 

 per cent, of some numan remains meeting of naturalists at Erlangen 

 from ancient mounds in the Western (see Marshall in Niederlandischen 

 United States, and in Florida. It Archivfiir Zoologie, December 1871) 

 frequently occurs in tr p negro. 



