THE NEANDERTHAL SKULL. 73 



skin, his rolling eye-balls, and hair parted 

 on the top of his head, to a negro in 

 miniature, is almost ludicrous." * 



But now two questions arise in connec- 

 tion with this interesting subject. 1st, 

 How did man get rid of the tail which 

 undoubtedly belonged to his early pro- 

 genitors ? And 2dly, Does man still retain 

 the power and capability of bearing the 

 caudal appendage ? 



The first of these questions may be 

 readily disposed of. The Encyclopaedias 

 of the 19th century describe existing 

 ascidians as resembling " tadpoles in 

 shape, and swimming about by means of 

 a vibratile tail, which they shake o/'when 

 they quit the larvae state, and assume the 

 sitting or fixed condition." If the earliest 

 progenitors of man according to Darwin 

 thus " shook off" his tail when he came of 

 age, and old enough to take his seat in the 

 Legislature of the time, I see no difficulty 

 in supposing that the latest of man's 



* Descent of Man, ii. 382. 



