The Problem of the Scoliae 



ance, a brother of the great composer Fe- 

 licien David,^ favoured me one day with his 

 reflections on the human structure: 



'' Ve^ moun bet ami/' he said. ^^ Fe: 

 I'home a lou dintre d'un por et lou defero 

 d'uno mounino. See, my dear friend, see: 

 man has the inside of a pig and the outside 

 of a monkey." 



I recommend the painter's aphorism to 

 those who might Hke to discover man's origin 

 in the Hog when the Ape has gone out of 

 fashion. According to David, descent is 

 proved by internal resemblances: 



" Uhome a lou dintre d'un por." 



The inventory of precursory types sees 

 nothing but organic resemblances and dis- 

 dains the differences of aptitude. By con- 

 sulting only the bones, the vertebrae, the hair, 

 the nervures of the wings, the joints of the 

 antennae, the imagination may build iip any 

 sort of genealogical tree that will fit with 

 our theories of classification, for, when all 

 is said, the animal, in its widest generaliza- 

 tion, is represented by a digestive tube. 

 With this common factor, the way lies open 

 to every kind of error. A machine is 

 judged not by this or that train of wheels, 



1 Felicien Cesar David (1810-1876). His chief work 

 was the choral symphony Le Desert. — Translator's Note. 

 "3 



