HOMINID&. 735 



As regards the much-discussed question of a tail in man, it may be 

 noted that if we define a tail as that part of the body which contains 

 postsacral vertebrtz and sundry other parts of primitive caudal segments, 

 and which is, moreover, completely surrounded by integument, then such 

 tails occur always in early embryos of man, and as abnormalities after 

 birth. The abnormalities may be either altogether soft or they may 

 contain bone, but in no case adequately known is there any increase in 

 the number of vertebrce which normally fuse to form the terminal 

 portion of the human vertebral column, known as the coccyx. 



The arguments by which Darwin and others have sought 

 to show that man arose from an ancestral type common to 

 him and to the higher apes, are the same as those used to 

 substantiate the general doctrine of descent. The " Descent 

 of Man " is the expansion of a chapter in the " Origin 

 of Species." The arguments may be briefly summarised : — 



(i) Physiological. The bodily life of man is like that of 

 monkeys ; men and monkeys are subject to similar 

 diseases ; various human traits of gesture, expression, etc., 

 are paralleled among the " brutes " ; reversions and monsters 

 corroborate the alliance sadly enough. 



(2) Morphological. The structure of man is like that of 

 the anthropoid apes ; none of his distinctions, except that 

 of a heavy brain, are momentous ; there are about eighty 

 vestigial structures in his muscular, skeletal, and other 

 systems. 



(3) Historical. Certainties in regard to remains of 

 primitive man are few, but his individual development reads 

 like a recapitulation of ancestral history. 



To many, man seems too marvellous to have been natur- 

 ally evolved, to others the evidence seems insufficient ; but 

 if the doctrine of descent is true for other organisms, it is 

 likely to be true for man also. 



As to the antiquity of the human race, it is certain that 

 men lived in Europe in the latter stages of the Ice age, and 

 there are indications of human life in Pliocene times. But, 

 as it is certain that man could not have arisen from any of 

 the known anthropoid apes, and as it is likely that he arose 

 from an ancestral stock common to them and to him, it 

 seems justifiable to date the antiquity of the human race not 

 later than the time when the anthropoid apes are known to 

 have been established as a distinct family. This takes us 

 back to Miocene ages. 



