70 HOMO V. DA11WIX. 



and faces, which they do use as feelers. Man, therefore, is 

 descended from the same primal stock as cats and rats ! In 

 spite, moreover, of all that Mr. Darwin has said, it is a fact 

 that the os coccyx in man is never a tail ; it has no joints; 

 nor has it muscles that can move it, as a tail must have. 



Danvin. " According to a popular impression," my Lord, 

 " the absence of a tail is eminently distinctive of man ; but 

 as those apes that come nearest to man are destitute of this 

 organ, its disappearance does not especially concern us. 

 Nevertheless, it may be well to own that no explanation, as 

 far as I am aware, has ever been given of the loss of the 

 tail by certain apes and man." (Vol. i. p. 150.) 



Lord C. That is a very candid admission. 



Darwin. " Its loss, however, is not surprising," my Lord, 

 "for it sometimes differs remarkably in length in species of 

 the same genera. Thus, in some species of Macacus the tail 

 is longer than the whole body, consisting of twenty-four 

 vertebrae ; in others it consists of a scarcely visible stump, 

 containing only three or four vertebrae. . . . This great 

 diversity in the structure and length of the tail in animals 

 belonging to the same genera, and following nearly the 

 same habits of life, renders it probable that the tail is not 

 of much importance to them ; and if so, we might have 

 expected that it would sometimes have become more or less 

 rudimentary, in accordance with what we incessantly see 

 with other structures." (Vol. i. p. 150.) 



Homo. Mr. Darwin, my Lord, is again reasoning on 

 hypotheses. The length of the tail, he tells us, differs in 

 enimals belonging, not to the same species, but to the same 

 genera, therefore it is "})robable" that the tail is not of 

 much importance to them ; " if s0," we might expect it to 

 become more or less rudimentary. This hypothetical 

 reasoning, my Lord, is very unsatisfactory. 



