MANNER OF DEVELOPMENT. 41 



extremities Mr. Bradley" found an abductor ossis metatarsi quinti 

 in both feet of man; ttiis muscle liad not up to that time been 

 recorded in mankind, but is always present in the anthropomor- 

 phous apes. The muscles of the hands and arms — parts of which 

 are so eminently characteristic of man — are extremely liable to 

 vary, so as to resemble the corresponding muscles in the lower 

 animals."- Such resemblances are either perfect or imperfect; 

 yet in the latter case they are manifestly of a transitional nature. 

 Certain variations are more common in man, and others in 

 woman, without our being able to assign any reason. Mr. Wood, 

 after describing numerous variations, makes the following preg- 

 nant remark: "Notable departures from the ordinary type of the 

 "muscular structures run in grooves or directions, which must 

 "be taken to Indicate some unknown factor, of much importance 

 "to a comprehensive knowledge of general and scientiilc anat- 

 omy.""^ 



That this unknown factor is reversion to a former state of 

 existence may be admitted as in the highest degree probable." 

 It is quite incredible that a man should through mere accident 

 abnormally resemble certain apes in no less than seven of his 

 muscles, if there had been no genetic connection between them. 



"■ 'Journal of Anat. and Phys.' May, 1872, p. 421. 



=2 Prof. Macalister (ibid. p. 121) has tabulated his observations, and 

 finds that muscular abnormalities are most frequent in the fore-arras, 

 secondly, in the face, thirdly, in the foot, &c. 



»2 The Rev. Dr. Haughton, after giving ('Proc. R. Irish Academy,' 

 June 27, 1864, p. 715), a remarkable case of variation in the human 

 flexor pollicis longus, adds, "This remarkable example shows that man 

 "may sometimes possess the arrangement of tendons of thumb and 

 "fingers, characteristic of the macaque; but whether such a case should 

 "be regarded as a macaque passing upwards into a man, or' a man 

 "passing downward into a macaque, or as a congenital freak of nature, 

 "I cannot undertake to say." It is satisfactory to hear so capable 

 an anatomist, and so embittered an opponent of evolutionism, admit- 

 ting even the possibility of either of his first propositions. Prof. Mac- 

 alister has also described ('Proc. R. Irish Acad.' vol. x. 1864, p. 13S) 

 variations in the fiexor pollicis longus, remarkable from their rela- 

 tions to the same muscle in the Quadrumana. 



" Since the first edition of this book appeared, Mr. Wood has pub- 

 lished another memoir in the 'Phil. Transactions,' 1870, p. 83, on the 

 varieties of the muscles of the human neck, shoulder, and chest. He 

 here shows how extremely variable these muscles are, and how often 

 and how closely the variations resemble the normal muscles of the 

 lower animals. He sums up by remarking, "It will be enough for my 

 "purpose if I have succeeded in showing the more important forms 

 "which, when occurring as varieties in the human subject, tend to ex- 

 "hibit in a, suflioiently marked manner what may be considered as 

 "proofs and examples of the Darwinian principle of reversion or law 

 "of inheritance, in this department of anatomical science." 



