668 The Significance of Human Anomalies. [November, 
have exactly the same anatomical structure, and that nearly 
everyone has in him some bony prominence, supernumerary 
muscle, or abnormal blood-vessel, which tells the tale of his 
descent. During the past nine years I have been teaching 
anatomy, and nearly three hundred subjects have been dis- 
sected under my immediate supervision : in these I have 
carefully noted the variations occurring, with the result of 
finding that scarcely one body is perfectly normal in every 
part, — nay, many are very abnormal, having as many as 
thirty to forty variations in their bones, muscles, or arteries. 
I have found variations to occur more frequently in Negro 
and Indian subjects than in those of European descent. 
When a variation in a bone, muscle, or blood-vessel is found, 
the first question asked is, What is its morphology ? and it 
is the exception not to be able to make it out ; if one 
fails it is concluded that our knowledge is deficient, and 
that the variation has a history, if we could only dis- 
cover it. 
Many variations are explained when an appeal is made to 
comparative anatomy, a science which is as yet very incom- 
plete, but which is rapidly enlarging its boundaries. Some 
animals we know by their fossil remains, and in these merely 
their bony structure can be studied ; all the soft parts are, 
of course, lost for ever, and can only be approximately 
restored by our knowledge of allied existing types of the 
same animals. With these few preliminary remarks I shall 
proceed to describe, as simply as possible, some anomalies I 
have myself met with, and the significance of which I shall 
endeavour to make clear. 
Osseous System . — In a skull in my possession, whose low- 
ness of type is manifested by the narrow forehead, prominent 
supra-orbital ridges, wide arches of bone to inclose the large 
masticatory muscles, the acute facial angle, prognathous 
jaws, and well-marked bony prominences, are two remark- 
able variations : — 
i. An Epihyal Bone. — In all human beings there is near 
the ear-opening a bony spine, generally about half an inch 
long, and which is called, from its resemblance to an ancient 
pen, the styloid process ; the lower end of this is connected 
with the hyoid or tongue-bone of the neck by a fibrous cord. 
Now, in this skull the styloid process is not connected with 
the little tongue-bone by a fibrous cord, but the styloid 
process is itself prolonged down to the tongue-bone and 
articulated with it in the fresh state. It is quite a large 
bone, 3 ^ inches long. This arrangement is seen in many of 
