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
_Reversion._—Many of the cases to be here given might have been
introduced under the last heading. Whenever a structure is arrested in
its development, but still continues growing until it closely resembles
a corresponding structure in some lower and adult member of the same
group, we may in one sense consider it as a case of reversion. The lower
members in a group give us some idea how the common progenitor of the
group was probably constructed; and it is hardly credible that a part
arrested at an early phase of embryonic development should be enabled to
continue growing so as ultimately to perform its proper function, unless
it had acquired this power of continued growth during some earlier state
of existence, when the present exceptional or arrested structure was
normal. The simple brain of a microcephalous idiot, in as far as it
resembles that of an ape, may in this sense be said to offer a case of
reversion. There are other cases which come more strictly under our
present heading of reversion. Certain structures, regularly occurring in
the lower members of the group to which man belongs, occasionally make
their appearance in him, though not found in the normal human embryo;
or, if present in the normal human embryo, they become developed in an
abnormal manner, though this manner of development is proper to the
lower members of the same group. These remarks will be rendered clearer
by the following illustrations.
In various mammals the uterus graduates from a double organ with two
distinct orifices and two passages, as in the marsupials, into a single
organ, showing no signs of doubleness except a slight internal fold, as
in the higher apes and man. The rodents exhibit a perfect series of
gradations between these two extreme states. In all mammals the uterus
is developed from two simple primitive tubes, the inferior portions of
which form the cornua; and it is in the words of Dr. Farre “by the
coalescence of the two cornua at their lower extremities that the body
of the uterus is formed in man; while in those animals in which no
middle portion or body exists, the cornua remain ununited. As the
development of the uterus proceeds, the two cornua become gradually
shorter, until at length they are lost, or, as it were, absorbed into
the body of the uterus.” The angles of the uterus are still produced
into cornua, even so high in the scale as in the lower apes, and their
allies the lemurs.
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