THIRD day's sitting. 67 



the humerus of man, as Dr. Struthers and others have 

 shown, there is generally a trace of this passage, and it is 

 sometimes fairly well developed, being formed by a de- 

 pending hook-like process of bone, completed by a band of 

 ligament. When present, the great nerve invariably passes 

 through it, and this clearly indicates that it is the homo- 

 logue and rudiment of the supra-condyloid foramen of the 

 lower animals. Professor Turner estimates, as he informs 

 me, that it occurs in about one per cent, of recent 

 skeletons ; but during ancient times it appears to have 

 been much more common. . . . The 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 races, is interesting. One chief cause seems 

 to be that ancient races stand somewhat nearer than 

 modern races in the long line of descent to their remote 

 animal-like progenitors." (Vol. i. pp. 28, 29.) 



Homo. The Quarterly Revietv, for July, says, my Lord, 

 that Mr. Darwin " mistakes the supra-condyloid foramen 

 of the humerus for the inter-condyloid perforation. Did 

 the former condition frequently occur in man — as, through 

 this mistake, Mr. Darwin asserts — it would be remarkable 

 indeed, as it is only found in the lower monkeys, and not 

 in the higher." (P. 64.) I leave Mr. Darwin then, to 

 settle the account on this matter with The Quarterly. 



Darwin. " The os coccyx in man," my Lord, " though 

 functionless as a tail, plainly represents this part in other 

 vertebrate animals. At an early embryonic period it is 

 free, and, as we have seen, projects beyond the lower 

 extremities. In certain rare and anomalous cases, it has 

 been known, according to Isidore Geoffroy St.-Hilaire, and 

 others, to form a small external rudiment of a tail. (Vol. 

 i. p. 29.) 



