THIRD DAY'S SITTING. 69 



rudimentary repetition of the extensor of the tail, which is 

 so largely developed in many mammals." (Vol. i. p. 2i).) 



Homo. The muscles to which Mr. Darwin now refers, my 

 Lord, have long been well known to anatomists. If what 

 Theile says of one of them be true, the fact could not 

 have escaped the notice of " the older and honoured chiefs 

 in natural science." I place their judgment against that 

 of Theile. As to the os coccyx being short, having only 

 four vertebrae, and consisting, with the exception of the 

 basal one, of the centrum alone, this may be quite true, but 

 how does it prove us to be descended from apes ? Without 

 Mr. Darwin's lively imagination, it is impossible to reach 

 his conclusions. 



Darwin. "The following fact," my Lord, "for which 

 I am also indebted to Professor Turner, shows how close*ly 

 the os coccyx corresponds with the true tail in the lower 

 animals. Luschka has recently discovered, at the extremity 

 of the coccygeal bones, a very peculiar convoluted body, 

 which is continuous with the middle sacral artery ; and this 

 discovery led Krauss and Meyer to examine the tail of a 

 monkey (Macacus), and of a cat, in both of which they 

 found, though not at the extremity, a similarly convoluted 

 body. (Vol. i. p. 30.) 



Homo. This, my Lord, is surely very illogical reasoning. 

 At the extremity of the coccygeal bones a very peculiar 

 convoluted body is found. A similar convoluted body is 

 found in the tail of a monkey, and of a cat, though not at 

 the extremity. Therefore man is descended from the same 

 progenitors as the monkey and the cat ! This reasoning is 

 about as conclusive as the specimen we had a little while 

 ago. Some persons belonging to the same family have a 

 few long hairs in their eyebrows, which they don't use as 

 feelers. Cats and rats have long hairs on their upper lips 



