DESCENT OP MAN FROM SOME LOWER FORM. 149 



their modification is directly connected with the erect or 

 semi-erect attitude of man and the anthropomorphous 

 apes. This conclusion is the more trustworthy, as Broca 

 formerly held a different view, which he has now aban- 

 doned. The modification, therefore, of the basal caudal 

 vertebrae in man and the higher apes may have been ef- 

 fected, directly or indirectly, through natural selection. 



But what are we to say about the rudimentary and 

 yariable vertebrae of the terminal portion of the tail, 

 forming the os coccyx? A notion which has often been, 

 and will no doubt again be ridiculed, namely, that fric- 

 tion has had something to do with the disappearance of 

 the external portion of the tail, is not so ridiculous as it 

 at first appears. Dr. Anderson states tha,t the extremely 

 short tail of Macacus brunneus is formed of eleven ver- 

 tebrae, including the imbedded basal ones. The extremity 

 is tendinous and contains no vertebrae ; this is succeeded 

 by five rudimentary ones, so minute that together they 

 are only one line and a half in length, and these are per- 

 manently bent to one side in the shape of a hook. The 

 free part of the tail, only a little above an inch in length, 

 includes only four more small vertebrae. This short tail 

 is carried erect ; but about a quarter of its total length is 

 doubled on to itself to the left ; and this terminal part, 

 which includes the hook-like portion, serves " to fill up 

 the interspace between the upper divergent portion of the 

 callosities " ; so that the animal sits on it, and thus renders 

 it rough and callous. 



POINTS OF KESBMBLANCE BETWEEN MAN AND MONKEY. 



_ ^ As small unimportant points of resem- 



Descent -^ , V> t 



of Man, blance between man and the Quadrumana are 

 page 160. jjQ^ commonly noticed in systematic works, 

 and as, when numerous, they clearly reveal our relation- 



