28 
THE DESCENT OF MAN. 
Part D. 
such as seed§, entering the passage and causing inflam- 
mation . 36 
In the Quadrumana and some other orders of mam- 
mals, especially in the Carnivora, there is a passage near 
the lower end of the humerus, called the supra-condyloid 
foramen, through which the great nerve of the fore limb 
passes, and often the great artery. Now in the humerus 
of man, as Dr. Struthers 37 and others have shewn, there 
is generally a trace of this passage, and it is sometimes : 
fairly well developed, being formed by a depending 
hook-like process of bone, completed by a band of 
ligament. When present the great nerve invariably 
passes through it, and this clearly indicates that it is the 
homologue and rudiment of the supra-condyloid fora- 
men of the lower animals. Prof. Turner estimates, as 
he informs me, that it occurs in about one per cent, of 
recent skeletons; but during ancient times it appears 
to have been much more common. Mr. Busk 38 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 Qrrony, the con- 
“ tents of which are referred to the Bronze period, as 
“ many as eight humeri out of thirty-two were perfo- 
“ rated ; but this extraordinary proportion, he thinks* 
“ might be due to the cavern having been a sort of 
36 M. C. Martins (“De l’TJnite Organique/’ in ‘Revue des Deux 
Mondes/ June 15, 1862, p. 16), and H'ackel (‘Generelle Morphologic,’ 
B. ii. s. 278), have both remarked on the singular fact of this rudiment 
sometimes causing death. 
37 ‘ The Lancet/ Jan. 24, 1868, p. 83. Dr. Knox, ‘ Great Artists and 
Anatomists/ p. 63. See also an important memoir on this process by 
Dr. Grube, in the * Bulletin de FAcad. Imp. de St. Petersbourg/ tom. 
xii. 1867, p. 448. 
38 “ On the Caves of Gibraltar/’ ‘ Transact. Xnternat. Congress of 
Prehist. Arch/ Third Session, 1869, p. 54. 
