The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex, Vol. IDarwin, Charles
Science
The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex, Vol. I
Darwin, Charles
Evolution (Biology); Human beings -- Origin; Sex differences; Sexual dimorphism (Animals); Sexual selection in animals
With respect to the alimentary canal I have met with an account of only
a single rudiment, namely the vermiform appendage of the cæcum. The
cæcum is a branch or diverticulum of the intestine, ending in a
cul-de-sac, and it is extremely long in many of the lower
vegetable-feeding mammals. In the marsupial koala it is actually more
than thrice as long as the whole body.[36] It is sometimes produced into
a long gradually-tapering point, and is sometimes constricted in parts.
It appears as if, in consequence of changed diet or habits, the cæcum
had become much shortened in various animals, the vermiform appendage
being left as a rudiment of the shortened part. That this appendage is a
rudiment, we may infer from its small size, and from the evidence which
Prof. Canestrini[37] has collected of its variability in man. It is
occasionally quite absent, or again is largely developed. The passage is
sometimes completely closed for half or two-thirds of its length, with
the terminal part consisting of a flattened solid expansion. In the
orang this appendage is long and convoluted: in man it arises from the
end of the short cæcum, and is commonly from four to five inches in
length, being only about the third of an inch in diameter. Not only is
it useless, but it is sometimes the cause of death, of which fact I have
lately heard two instances: this is due to small hard bodies, such as
seeds, entering the passage and causing inflammation.[38]
In the Quadrumana and some other orders of mammals, 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[39] 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 foramen 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[40] 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 30 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.
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