THE DESCENT OB ORIGIN OF MAN 61 



development of the uterus proceeds, tile two cornua become 

 gradually shorter, until at length they are lost, or, as it were, 

 absorbed into the body of the uterus." The angles of the 

 uterus are still produced into cornua, even in animals as 

 high up in the scale as the lower apes and lemurs. 



Now in women, anomalous cases are not very infrequent, 

 in which the mature uterus is furnished with cornua, or is 

 partially divided into two organs ; and such cases, according 

 to Owen, repeat "the grade of concentrative development," 

 attained by certain rodents. Here perhaps we have an in- 

 stance of a simple arrest of embryonic development, with 

 subsequent growth and perfect functional development; for 

 either side of the partially double uterus is capable of per- 

 forming' the proper office of gestation. In other and rarer 

 cases, two distinct uterine cavities are formed, each having 

 its proper orifice and passage. '° No such stage is passed 

 through during the ordinary development of the embryo, 

 and it is difficult to believe, though perhaps not impossible, 

 that the two simple, minute, primitive tubes should know 

 how (if such an expression may be used) to grow into two 

 distinct uteri, each with a well- constructed orifice and pas- 

 sage, and each furnished with numerous muscles, nerves, 

 glands, and vessels, if they had not formerly passed through 

 a similar course of development, as in the case of existing 

 marsupials. No one will pretend that so perfect a structure 

 as the abnormal double uterus in woman could be the result 

 of mere chance. But the principle of reversion, by which a 

 long-lost structure is called back into existence, might serve 

 as the guide for its full development, even after the , lapse 

 of an enormous interval of time. 



Prof. Canestrini, after discussing the foregoing and vari- 

 ous analogous cases, arrives at the same conclusion as that 

 just given. He adduces another instance, in the case of the 

 malar bone," which, in some of the Quadrumana and other 



39 See Dr. A. Farre's well -known article in the "Cyclopsedia of Anatomy 



and Physiology " vol. v., 1859, p. 642. Owen, "Anatomy of Vertebrates, " vol. 



iii 1868 p 687. Prof. Turner in "Edinburgh Med. Journal," February, 1865. 



'«! "Annuario della Soo. dei NaturaUsti in Modena," 186'7, p. 83. Prot 



