The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to SexDarwin, Charles
History
The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex
Darwin, Charles
Evolution (Biology); Human beings -- Origin; Sex differences; Sexual dimorphism (Animals); Sexual selection in animals
There is another foramen or perforation in the humerus, occasionally
present in man, which may be called the inter-condyloid. This occurs,
but not constantly, in various anthropoid and other apes (50. Mr. St.
George Mivart, ‘Transactions Phil. Soc.’ 1867, p. 310.), and likewise
in many of the lower animals. It is remarkable that this perforation
seems to have been present in man much more frequently during ancient
times than recently. Mr. Busk (51. “On the Caves of Gibraltar,”
‘Transactions of the International Congress of Prehistoric
Archaeology,’ Third Session, 1869, p. 159. Prof. Wyman has lately shewn
(Fourth Annual Report, Peabody Museum, 1871, p. 20), that this
perforation is present in thirty-one per cent. of some human remains
from ancient mounds in the Western United States, and in Florida. It
frequently occurs in the negro.) 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 ‘Cimetière du Sud,’ at
Paris; and in the Grotto of Orrony, the contents of which are referred
to the Bronze period, as many as eight humeri out of thirty-two were
perforated; but this extraordinary proportion, he thinks, might be due
to the cavern having been a sort of ‘family vault.’ Again, M. Dupont
found thirty per cent. of perforated bones in the caves of the Valley
of the Lesse, belonging to the Reindeer period; whilst M. Leguay, in a
sort of dolmen at Argenteuil, observed twenty-five per cent. to be
perforated; and M. Pruner-Bey found twenty-six per cent. in the same
condition in bones from Vaureal. Nor should it be left unnoticed that
M. Pruner-Bey states that this condition is common in Guanche
skeletons.” It is an interesting fact that ancient races, in this and
several other cases, more frequently present structures which resemble
those of the lower animals than do the modern. One chief cause seems to
be that the ancient races stand somewhat nearer in the long line of
descent to their remote animal-like progenitors.
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