22 Tke Descent of Man. Takt 1 



occasionally present in man, -wliicli may be called the inter- 

 condyloid. This occurs, but not constantly, in various anthro- 

 poid and other apes,''" and likewise in many of the lower animals 

 It is remarkable that this perforation seems to have been present 

 in man much more frequently during ancient times thar 

 recently. Mr. Busk"' has collected the following evidence on 

 this head : Prof. Broca " noticed the perforation in four and a 

 " half per cent, of the arm-bones collected in the ' Cimetiere 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 extraordi- 

 ■' nary proportion, he thinks, might be due to the cavern 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 

 " a sort of dolmen at Argenteuil, observed twenty -five per cent. 

 " to be perforated ; and M. Pruner-Bey found twenty-six per 

 " cent, in the same condition in bones from Vaureal. Nor should 

 " it be left unnoticed that M. Pruner-Bey states that this con- 

 " dition is common in Guanohe skeletons." It is an interesting 

 fact that ancient races, in ihis and several other cases, more 

 frequently present structures which resemble those of the lower 

 animals than do the modern. One chief cause seems to be that 

 the ancient races stand somewhat nearer in the long line of 

 descent to their remote animal-like progenitors. 



In man, the os coccyx, together with certain other vertebrae 

 hereafter to be described, though functionless as a tail, plainly 

 represent this part in other vertebrate animals. At an early 

 embryonic period it is free, and projects beyond the lower 

 extremities ; as may be seen in the drawing (Fig. 1.) of a human 

 embryo. Even after birth it has been known, in certain rare 

 and anomalous cases,"^ to form a small external rudiment of a 

 tail. The os cocoyx"^s short, usually including only four 

 vertebrro, all ^"nclrfrosed together : and these are in a rudi- 



■'"' Mr. St. Gcor2;e Mivart, 'Trans- *2 Quatrefages has lately collected 



act. Phil. Soc' 18B7, p. 310. the evidence on this subject. 'Revue 



" "On the Caves of Gibraltar," des Cours Scientifiqnes,' 1887-1868, 



'Transact. luternat. Congress of p. 625. In 1840 Fleischmann ex- 



I'rohibt. Arch.' Third Session, 1869, hibited a human fo2tus bearing a 



p. 159. Prof. Wyman has lately free tail, which, as is not always the 



shewn (Fourth Annual Report, Pea- case, included vertebral bodies ; and 



body Museum, 1871, p. 20), that this tnis tail was critically examined by 



perforation is present in thirty-one the many anatomists present at the 



per cent, of some numan remains meeting of naturalists at Erlangen 



from ancient mounds in the Western (see Marshall in NiederliindischeD 



United States, ard ra Florida. It Archivfiir Zoologie, Decemberl87 Li 

 frequently ocours in \.\ p negro. 



