RUDIMEN'I'S. 21 



In some of the lower Quadrumana, in. the Lemuridae and Carni- 

 vora, as well as In many marsupials, there is a passage near the 

 lower end of the humerus, called the supra-condyloid foramen, 

 through which the great nerve of the fore limb and often the great 

 artery pass. Now in the humerus of man, there is generally a trace 

 of this passage, which i's sometimes fairly well developed, being 

 formed by a depending hook-like process of bone, completed by a 

 band of ligament. Dr. Struthers," who has closely attended to the 

 subject, has now shown that this peculiarity is sometimes inherit- 

 ed, as it has occurred in a father, and in no less than four out of 

 his seven children. When present, the great nerve invariably 

 passes through it; and this clearly indicates that it is the homo- 

 logue and rudiment of the Bupra-condyloid foramen of the lower 

 animals. Prof. Turner estimates, as he informs me, that it oc- 

 curs in about one per cent, of recent skeletons. But if the occa- 

 sional development of this structure in man is, as seems probable, 

 due to reversion, it is a return to a very ancient state of things, be- 

 cause in the higher Quadrumana it is absent. 



There is another foramen or perforation in the humerus, occa- 

 sionally present in man, which may be called the inter-condyloid. 

 This occurs, but not constantly, in various anthropoid and other 

 apes,™ and likewise in many of the lower animals. It is remark- 

 able that this perforation seems to have been present in man much 

 more frequently during ancient times than recently. Mr. Busk" 

 has collected the following evidence on this head: Prof. Broca "no- 

 "ticed the perforation in four and a half per cent, of the arm-bones 

 "collected in the 'Cimeti^re du Sud,' at Paris; and in the Grotto of 

 "Orrony, the contents of which are referred to the Bronze period, 

 "as many as eight humeri out of thirty-two were perforated; but 

 "this extraordinary proportion, he thinks, might be due to the cav- 

 "ern having been a sort of 'family vault.' Again, M. Dupont found 

 "thirty per cent, of perforated bones in the caves of the Valley of 

 "the Lesse, belonging to the Reindeer period; whilst M. Leguay, in 



des,' June 15, 1862, p. 16), and Hackel ('Generelle Morphologie,' B. ii. s. 

 27S)] have both remarked on the singular fact of this rudiment some- 

 times causing death. 



"With respect to inheritance, see Dr. Struthers in the 'Lancet,' Feh. 

 15, 1873, and another important paper, ibid., Jan. 24, 1863, p. 83. Dr. 

 Knox, as I am informed, was the first anatomist who drew attention 

 to this peculiar structure in man; see his 'Great Artists and Anato- 

 mists,' p. 63. See also an important memoir on this process by Dr. 

 Gruber, in the 'Bulletin de I'Acad. Imp. de St. Petersbourg, torn. xii. 

 1867, p. 448. 



» Mr. St. George Mivart, 'Transact. Phil. Soc' 1867, p. 310. 



" "On the Caves of Gibraltar," 'Transact. Internat. Congress of Pre- 

 hist. Arch.' Third Session, 1869, p. 159. Prof. Wyman has lately shown 

 (Fourth Annual Report, ■Peabody Museum, 1871, p. 20), that this per- 

 foration is present in thirty-one per cent, of some. human remains 

 from ancient mounds in the Western United States," and in Florida. 

 It frequently occurs in the negro. 

 3 



