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HOME UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
OF MODERN KNOWLEDGE

No. 66

Editors !

HERBERT FISHER, M.A., F.B.A. •
Prof. GILBERT MURRAY, Litt.D.,

LL.D., F.B.A.
Prof. J. ARTHUR THOMSON, M.A.
Ppof. WILLIAM T. BREWSTER, M.A,

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SCIENCE
'Already Published

ANTHROPOLOGY By R. R. Marett

AN INTRODUCTION TO

SCIENCE By J. Arthur Thomsoic

EVOLUTION ,..,.;. By J. Arthur Thomson and

Patrick Geddes

THE ANIMAL WORLD By F. W. Gamble

INTRODUCTION TO MATHE-
MATICS By A. N. Whitehead

^STRONOMY By A. R. Hinks

PSYCHICAL RESEARCH . . . . By W. F. Barrett
THE EVOLUTION OF PLANTS By D. H. Scott
CRIME AND INSANITY . . . . By C. A. Mercier
MATTER AND ENERGY .... By F. Soddy

PSYCHOLOGY By W. McDougaix

PRINCIPLES OF PHYSIOLOGY By J. G. McKendrick
THE MAKING OF THE EARTH By J. W. Gregory

ELECTRICITY By Gisbert Kapp

THE HUMAN BODY ByA.KEiTH

Future Issues

CHEMISTRY By R. Meldola

THE MINERAL WORLD .... By Sir T. H. Hollahd

MAN

A HISTORY OF THE HUMAN BODY

BY

ARTHUR KEITH, M.D., LL.D.

HUNTERIAN PROFESSOR AND CONSERVATOR OF MUSEUM
ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS, ENGLAND

Author of ^* Embryology and Morphology of Man ^''^ ^* Ancient Types
of Man^^^ etc. J etc.

NEW YORK

HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY

LONDON

WILLIAMS AND NORGATE

an 2.4

^

PREFACE

This little book treats of the history of the
human body rather than of its structure and
mechanism. It reflects the opinions current
among the more progressive anatomists of
the present time. The author has relied to a
large extent on the well-known works cited
in the bibliography at the end, but it is only
fair to the reader to mention the fact that
many of the statements are founded on
unpublished researches made by the author.
The last chapter sums up the story of man's
origin, and the reader, especially if unfamiliar
with the geological divisions of time, may find
it profitable to refer to this chapter when the
first two or three have been read.

A. Keith.

Hoyal College of Surgeons of England^
London, W»C,

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAOm

I How THE Human Body is Studied , 9

II The Human Brain 21

III Man's Place amongst Animals . . 39

IV Stature, Proportion and Growth . . 64

V Erect Posture 69

VI The Tail and certain other Vestigial

Structures ..... 79

VII Development op the Human Body . 94

VIII Human Monsters an*d Malformations . 113

IX Changes in the Body durinq Youth and

Age 129

X The Sexual Characters of the Human

Body 144

XI Racial Characters of the Body . . 164

XII Bodily Features as Indexes op Mental

Character 183

XIII Skin, Hair and Sense Organs . . 201

XIV Mechanism op the Human Body , .215

XV Degeneration and Regeneration . • 231

XVI Summary — Antiquity and Genealogy op

Man 247

Bibliography 253

Index • 256

MAN

A HISTORY OF THE HUMAN BODY
CHAPTER I

HOW THE HUMAN BODY IS STUDIED

In all the medical schools of London a notice
is posted over the door leading to the dissecting
room forbidding strangers to enter. I propose,
however, to push the door open and ask the
reader to accompany me within, for, if we are
to understand the human body, it is essential
that we should see the students at work.
If we enter in the right spirit — with a desire
to learn something of the structure of man's
wonderful body with our own eyes — there is
nothing in the room which need repel or
offend us. The room is lofty, well-lighted and
clean ; the students in their white coats are
grouped round tables on which lie the
embalmed bodies of men and women who have
run the race of life — often, alas ! with but ill
fortune. The students are dissecting systema-
tically, each with his text-book placed beside
him for consultation and guidance, and with
the instruments of dissection in his hands.
The human body is to be the subject of their

9

10 THE HUMAN BODY

life's work ; if they are to recognize and treat
its illnesses and injuries they must know each
part as familiarly as the pianist knows the
notes of the keyboard. We propose to watch
them at work. Each student is at his allotted
part, and if we observe them in turn we shall,
in an hour or less, obtain an idea of the main
tissues and structures which enter into the
composition of the human body.

By good fortune a dissection is in progress
in front of the wrist, which displays, amongst
other structures, the radial artery at which
the physician feels the pulse and counts the
rate of the heart's beat. The skin here is
loose and thin, and as the student turns it
aside in flaps he uses his knife to free it from
the white subcutaneous tissue which binds it
down to the deeper parts. He looks at his
own wrist and sees why the skin here is loose ;
as he bends his wrist the skin is thrown into
folds ; when he extends it, the skin in front
of the wrist is stretched ; unless it were loosely
bound down it would be impossible to move
the wrist joint freely. On the palm the skin
is different ; it is thick and bound firmly by
dense subcutaneous tissue to the underlying
parts ; there would be no firmness of grasp
unless the skin of the palm were thick and
closely bound down. As the student turns back
the skin from the front of the wrist he searches
in the loose tissue under it for the nerves
which supply the skin with the power of feeling

HOW THE BODY IS STUDIED 11

and for small veins which carry the used or
venous blood back to the heart. He squeezes
the blood backwards in these vessels ; they
swell out here and there into little knobs
owing to the presence of pockets or valves
which permit the blood to flow only in one
direction, namely, towards the heart. It was
the study of the arrangement of these valves,
nearly three centuries ago now, w^hich led
Harvey to the discovery of the circulation.
Beneath the skin and subcutaneous tissue
there is another covering which has to be cut
through before the sinews or tendons in front
of the wrist are exposed to view. This third
wrapping — the deep fascia the student will call
it — is membranous and strong and keeps the
tendons in place ; workmen often find it
necessary to add additional support by means
of a wrist-strap. The tendons are glistening
almost white ; eight of them go to the fingers
(two to each) ; one goes to the thumb and
two act on the bones of the wrist or carpus.
Just above the ^vrist joint the tendons have
attached to them the muscles which flex the
fingers and the wrist. They look so simple
in the dead body ; yet one has but to watch the
fingers and wrists of the pianist or of the
typist to see how quick and complicated they
can be in life. As the student traces the
tendons into the palm of the hand he sees
them become infolded within a loose sac with
its interior lined by a smooth lubricated

12 THE HUMAN BODY

surface. This synovial sac is an example
of the perfect manner in which the human
machine is made ; a self- oiling mechanism
is provided at each point of friction. From
overwork or injury fluid may collect in this sac
and weaken the power of the workman's wrist.
Lying side by side with the sinews at the
wrist there is another cord, somewhat like
them in appearance, but very different in
nature. It is the median nerve. Our friend
the dissector has already seen a patient in the
wards of the hospital with a jagged wound
at the wrist which has injured the nerve.
In that case he noticed that the thumb, fore,
middle and part of the ring fingers had lost
their usual sense of feeling, and that some of
the small muscles of the thumb had no longer
the power of movement. For our benefit he
traces the nerve upwards in the forearm,
arm, through the armpit until it reaches the
root of the neck, where it is seen to be
formed by five pairs of nerve roots which issue
from the spinal cord. In the median nerve
we see one of the paths which unite the brain
and hand ; messages pass by it from the hand
which the brain interprets as heat or cold,
rough or smooth, sharp or blunt ; other
messages pass outwards from the brain to
start or stop the muscles of the forearm or
fingers. The student pays particular attention
to the radial artery ; on the wrist, just above
the root of the thumb, he finds the vessel

HOW THE BODY IS STUDIED 13

resting on the lower end of the radius. He
places his finger over the artery and observes
how easily he can press it against the bone.
In life we feel the artery suddenly expand and
then subside with each beat of the heart ;
with a finger on the pulse the physician knows
how the heart is working.

We propose to observe the dissector as
he traces the radial artery to the heart.
Below the bend of the elbow it is seen to
issue from the main vessel of the upper
arm — the brachial ; the brachial in turn
is found to be a continuation of the
great artery of the armpit — the axillary.
From the armpit the great arterial channel
is followed across the root of the neck through
the upper opening of the chest or thorax until
it joins the aorta — the great vessel which
springs from the left ventricle of the heart.

It must not be thought that the artery at
the wrist is merely an elastic-walled pipe which
expands passively as the ventricle discharges
its load of blood ; it is much more than that.
When the student places a very thin section
of the artery under the microscope for our
particular benefit, we see that it has an exceed-
ingly smooth lining, in order that the blood
may flow with a minimum of friction ; outside
the lining there is seen an inner coat which
contains many elastic fibres ; then another
coat made up of small contractile or muscular
fibres. These muscular fibres regulate the

14 THE HUMAN BODY

size of the artery; they give or yield with
each beat of the heart, and then contract, thus
assisting the heart to force the blood onwards
to nourish the tissues of the hand. The artery
we have just seen under the microscope had
been continuously expanding and contracting
for over seventy years at the rate of seventy
or eighty times a minute. No elastic tube
yet invented by man could have done that.
We note, however, that it has suffered the
changes which overtake our arteries when they
have been at work for forty years or even
less ; the elastic tissue and the muscle fibres
are clogged with lime-salts ; the elasticity of
youth is gone. Hence as we grow older we can-
not make the violent " spurts " of our youth.
Before leaving the dissection we have been
surveying it will be well to see one of those
marvellously contrived structures known as a
joint. The wrist joint is still hidden by the
tendons ; even when these are cut through
the interior of the joint is not yet visible;
it is enclosed by stout bands of tissue or
ligaments which become tight when the joint
is over-bent. They prevent dislocation of
the joint ; indeed, so strong are those of the
wrist joint that when we stumble forwards,
or fall on the outstretched hand, it is the
bones and not the ligaments which are apt
to give way. When the ligaments are cut
through, the articulating or jointed surfaces
of the bones are seen. They are covered by

HOW THE BODY IS STUDIED 15

an exceedingly smooth coating of white
cartilage. Here, again, there is a self-
lubricating mechanism which reduces friction
at the joint to a minimum. In those individ-
uals, however, who have the misfortune to
suffer from rheumatism the self-lubricating
mechanism has failed, the cartilaginous cover-
ing has become dry and worn away, and
instead of a joint which works smoothly
and silently there is one which is rough and
creaks like a gate swinging on a rusty hinge.
We have surveyed the anatomy at the
wrist in some detail and with a very distinct
purpose. At every part of the limbs — upper
and lower — we see the same arrangement of
parts as at the wrist. There is first a covering
of skin, then a layer of subcutaneous tissue,
which unites the skin loosely to the third
wrapping — the deep fascia. Within the sleeve
of deep fascia are packed the muscles which
move the limbs, the nerves which control the
muscles and supply sensation to the parts ;
the great arteries which carry the nourishing
blood from the left ventricle of the heart, and
the great veins which return the used blood
to the right ventricle — the pump of the lungs.
When the fleshy or perishable parts are
removed by dissection or by the corruption
which so soon overtakes the soft parts after
death, only the bones or skeleton remain to
represent what was at one time a marvellous
living machine.

16 THE HUMAN BODY

We now propose to transfer our attention
for a short time to two students who are
uncovering the parts in front of the neck
between the chin and breastbone or sternum.
The windpipe has already been exposed, and
is seen issuing from the voice-box or larynx
below the chin to disappear at the upper
opening of the chest on its way to the lungs.
On each side of the windpipe the carotid
arteries are found passing upwards to supply
the head and brain with blood ; close by them
are the jugular veins carrying the venous
blood in an opposite direction. Here we have
an opportunity given us of seeing a peculiar
feature of man's structure. Just above the
larynx the carotid artery divides into two
branches, an external one which nourishes
the face, and an internal one which supplies
the brain with blood. Man has a large brain
and a relatively small face, hence in him the
internal branch is the larger. In all other
animals the external is much the larger,
because the face is massive while the brain is
small. It has been suggested that our brains
are large because of the calibre of our internal
carotid arteries ; that statement we do not
believe any more than the word of the wag-
goner who assures us that it is the dray
which pulls the horse. Our object, however,
in examining the anatomy of the neck is to see
that curious structure or gland known as the
thyroid body. It is made up of two parts

HOW THE BODY IS STUDIED 17

or lobes, one on each side of the larynx and
upper part of the windpipe ; the lobes are
united together by a part which crosses in
front of the windpipe. Most glands in the
body, such as the salivary and liver, have
ducts or channels by which is discharged the
substances they secrete, but there is no duct
connected with the thyroid. The secretion
which it forms is discharged directly into
the blood stream and hence it is called a
ductless gland or a gland of internal secretion.
In recent years we have come to recognize
that the secretion of the thyroid body is of
the greatest importance. In children who
suffer from disease of this gland we see that
the growth of their bones is delayed or ceases,
their skin becomes pasty, puffy and ill-
nourished, and what is more serious their
brains do not develop properly, and they
become cretins or idiots. In some parts
of this country — especially in Derbyshire —
the thyroid is apt to become enlarged, forming
a goitre and giving rise to the condition
popularly known as " Derbyshire neck."
There are other ductless glands, such as the
pituitary body which lies enclosed within the
skull and below the brain, and the suprarenal
bodies which are situated in the abdomen
above the kidneys. Our sense of well-being,
our capacity for work and for pleasure, the
nourishment and growth of our bony frames
depend to a very great extent on the manner

B

18 THE HUMAN BODY

in which these small, insignificant-looking
ductless glands perform their proper functions.

Our time with the students in the dissecting
room has almost expired ; there remains only
a moment to glance at a dissection which is
exposing the important organs which are
enclosed within the thorax and abdomen.
Part of the front wall of these cavities has
been removed. Within the thorax we see
the heart enclosed within its fibrous sac —
the pericardium. Two great arteries issue
from its upper part — the pulmonary artery to
convey the impure blood from the right
ventricle to the lungs, and the aorta from the
left ventricle to nourish the body with pure
blood. Two great veins enter the right side
of the heart — ^the upper and lower venae
cavse ; they bring back the impure blood
gathered from the various parts of the body.
The pulmonary veins convey the pure blood
from the lungs to the left side of the heart.
Within the thoracic cavity are the two lungs,
one on each side of the heart. They are
mottled and dark with soot, showing that
their owner had breathed the air of those
who live in large cities.

At the moment we have chosen to view
the students at work two of them are examin-
ing that wonderful partition — the diaphragm
■ — which separates the chamber containing
the heart and lungs from the lower or ab-
dominal cavity in which the organs concerned

HOW THE BODY IS STUDIED 19

with digestion are placed. Thanks to the
discovery of Rontgen these students have a
decided advantage over their predecessors of
fifteen years ago ; they can see the diaphragm,
which is mainly composed of muscle, actually
at work in your body or mine. As we take a
breath the domes of the diaphragm are seen
to descend, enlarging the cavity of the thorax,
and we see the lungs become clearer as they
expand and are filled with air. We can also
see the dark shadow of the liver descending
below the right dome of the diaphragm and
the transparency that marks the stomach
pushed downwards under the left dome.
As we allow our breath to escape we see
the domes of the diaphragm again ascend,
and if we place our hand on our bodies as
we breathe we shall observe that, as the
diaphragm ascends, the muscles which enclose
the abdomen are at work, pressing the
viscera and the diaphragm upwards and thus
returning the parts to a proper position for
taking another breath. All the muscles
which we now see connected with the walls of
the cavities of the thorax and abdomen are
concerned in respiration. At the moment of
birth they begin to work and keep on unceas-
ingly all through the years of life until death
brings to a final stop one of the most wonderful
mechanisms of the human body. We have
not the time now to look at the nerves and
nerve centres which control the muscles of

20 THE HmiAN BODY

respiration and keep them at work both when
we sleep and when we wake.

There are structures connected with diges-
tion which we might examine, but we must
postpone their consideration until another
opportunity. It may have occurred, how-
ever, to the onlooker that, since we can
trans-illuminate the human body, it is no
longer necessary to dissect it. Dissection
is still necessary, for we cannot interpret
correctly what is seen when the body is
lighted up under X-rays unless we already
possess an extremely accurate knowledge
of the arrangement of parts as they are
displayed in the human body after death.

Our cursory visit to the dissecting room has
not been in vain if the reader^has realized
how complex the structure of the human
body really is, and how necessary it is that
those who have to cure its disorders should
try to understand the intricacy of its mechan-
ism. We have seen, however — and this is of
more importance for our present purpose —
the manner in which our knowledge of the
human body is obtained. What one genera-
tion of anatomists has learned is written in
books and thus handed on. For more than
three centuries men have studied the structure
of the human body, and yet to-day there is
still much, very much, which we do not under-
stand, but we live and work in the hope that
our knowledge will continue to increase.

CHAPTER II

THE HUMAN BRAIN

We propose to visit the dissecting room
again, this time with the definite purpose of
seeing the human brain — that wonderful
organ which has hfted mankind to so high
an estate. We shall see a structure which,
to all outward appearance, might have been
that of a great man — one of those who have
written our plays, our novels, our philosophies,
or who have conquered the world by force,
by invention or by sweet persuasion. Here,
on the threshold of the medical school, a
confession must be made of our ignorance :
no one, however skilled he may be, can tell,
from merely surveying the brain, whether its
owner was a clever man or a foolish one. The
day may come when an examination of the
brain will reveal its capacities, but we have
not yet reached that position. Having made
this confession we make our way to a small
anatomical theatre in the school, and take a
seat with the students on the benches which
rise tier on tier, almost to the roof. Before
us stands a white-coated anatomist ; he is to

21

22 THE HTOIAN BODY

give a demonstration on the brain, showing it
to us in its natural position within the body.
The scalp, in the subject of demonstration, is
folded back, and the cap of the skull removed.
Before the brain can be seen, a thick membrane
(dura mater), which lines the interior of the
skull or cranial cavity, has also to be turned
aside, but this is easily done, for the brain is
merely in contact with it. The chief part
of the brain is thus exposed — the part known
as the cerebrum. We note that it occupies
that region of the skull which lies above the
ear-holes, and that it extends forwards to
occupy the forehead above the orbits and
backwards to fill the projecting occiput above
the root of the neck. The brain is wrapped
in a semi-transparent membrane through
which we see a rich supply of blood vessels
on its folded or convoluted surface. Between
the folds and convolutions there are depres-
sions and fissures.

The cerebrum is divided into two hemi-
spheres, right and left, a fact which we could
not have guessed from our inner consciousness,
for we seem to think as if with one organ.
The anatomist presses the right and left
halves slightly apart and shows a wide white
bridge of nerve fibres (the corpus callosum)
joining them. He further informs us of
another mystery — the right hemisphere pre-
sides over the left half of the body while
the left hemisphere is connected with the

THE HUIMAN BRAIN 23

right side. He narrates a case, to illus-
trate the crossed relationship of brain and
body, which he had seen some days pre-
viously. The case was that of a working-
man, the subject of fits, in each of which
he fell down with the fingers of the right
hand moving convulsively. The surgeon
marked out a small area on the left side
of the patient's head, and operating there
found a small tumour pressing on the under-
lying part of the brain. Its removal effected
a cure. We see then why the surgeon
operated on the left hemisphere when it
was the right hand which was affected, but
to realize how he was guided to the exact
spot for operation we must look at the
surface of the brain exposed before us.
The surface is thrown into convolutions
separated from each other by depressions.
The longer and deeper depressions are
known as fissures. We notice that the
main one — the fissure of Sj^lvius — begins
on that part of the brain which lies just
behind the eye and beneath the temple and
passes backwards and upwards to end some
distance above the position of the tip of the
ear (Fig. 1). The fissure of Sylvius separates
the frontal and parietal lobes of the brain,
situated above the fissure, from the temporal
lobe, which is situated below it. Towards the
posterior end of the brain the temporal and
parietal lobes join with another important

24

THE HUMAN BODY

lobe — ^the occipital. Crossing the surface of
the hemisphere from above downwards and
separating the frontal from the parietal lobe is
a fissure of the utmost importance to us. It is

FISSURE or ROLANDO

\ f>OST-CENTRAL. COHWJiJJTIOf*

^gpCeNrWAL eONVOL:

h^ FfTONTAL
QONVOLl

Fio. 1. — ^The main divisions of the Brain, showing some
of the functional centres.

the fissure of Rolando or central fissure (Fig. 1).
On the convolution in front of the central fis-
sure— the precentral convolution — is situated
the area which regulates the movement of the
arm. It was the knowledge of this fact which

THE HUMAN BRAIN 25

guided the surgeon. The central fissure is also
seen on the brains of monkeys ; in the man-
like apes or anthropoids the fissure is very
human-like. Some forty years ago it was
discovered that when the cortex or surface
layer of the convolution in front of the cen-
tral fissure was stimulated electrically, the
unconscious ape performed certain definite
movements. If the upper part of the pre-
central convolution was thus called into
action certain movements of the opposite
lower limb resulted ; if the middle part,
motions in the opposite upper limb ; if of the
lower part, movements of the opposite side of
the face, lips and tongue could be called forth.
Further, it was discovered that the parts of
the convolution behind the central fissure were
connected with sensations arisinor in corres-
ponding parts of the body. There are two
inferences which we draw from these facts ;
(i) that the human brain must be formed
on the same type or plan as that of the ape,
for the medical man is able to apply, in diag-
nosing diseases of the brain, the knowledge he
has obtained by experiments on the ape ;
(ii) that each part of the brain has its own
peculiar function. Only the convolutions
immediately in front of the central fissure
give rise to movements ; w^hen other parts
are stimulated there is no muscular response.
Thus it is, that at the present time there are
large parts of the brain whose function is

26 THE HUMAN BODY

unknown — parts which we beheve serve for
memory, judgment and imagination.

We must, however, keep our eyes on the
demonstrator and watch him as he proceeds to
show us how the cerebral hemispheres are con-
nected with the body. When they are raised
from the floor or base of the skull we see a great
stem — the brain stem — issuing from them ;
in size it is about the thickness of a baby's
wrist. When this is cut through the cerebrum
can be lifted away, and we note the remarkable
fact that only one pair of nerves end directly
in the hemispheres, namely, the olfactory or
nerves of smell. The optic nerves from the
eye are now visible ; they encircle and seem
to end on the back of the brain stem. Im-
pressions arising in the eye — -the sensations
caused by light-^pass first to the brain-stem,
but from their termination other nerve paths
are provided which can be traced into the
cerebral hemisphere towards the posterior or
occipital lobes. The occipital cortex in which
the paths end are known to subserve the
functions of sight ; blindness is produced
when they are destroyed by disease. When
the cerebral hemispheres are removed from
the head it is seen that their posterior parts did
not rest on the base of the skull as the frontal
and temporal lobes did, but on a fibrous
partition. When the anatomist removes the
partition we see beneath it a minor com-
partment which contains the cerebellum and

THE HinVIAN BRAIN 27

the continuation of the stem of the brain.
The cerebellum is implanted on the upper or
posterior aspect of the stem, and we note that
it is only about a ninth part of the cerebrum
in point of size, and that its substance is not
convoluted, but is thrown into leaflets. Until
a few years ago the wildest guesses were
made regarding the function of the cerebellum.
Phrenologists place the centre for amativeness
on that part of the head which overlies it.
Its exact function is not known, but we are
certain it is not the seat of our consciousness,
nor of our higher faculties ; there is evidence
now to show that it is an automatic mechan-
ism for regulating and co-ordinating our
muscles when they are in action.

Before the cerel3ellum and the stem of the
brain can be lifted out and shown to us, the
anatomist finds it necessary to divide the
continuation of the latter as it escapes from the
skull to enter the canal of the backbone, where
it changes its name and is known as the spinal
cord. Even if we did not see the stem of the
brain and the spinal cord in their natural posi-
tion in the body we could tell where the one
ended and the other began. In the spinal cord
the nerves (31 pairs of them) arise from its sides
by two roots, one posterior, the other anterior
in position. In the stem of the brain they
arise irregularlj^ some of them corresponding
to the line of origin of the posterior roots of the
spinal nerves, some to the anterior roots, while

28 THE HUMAN BODY

others arise in an intermediate line. In 1811,
exactly a century ago, a young Scotsman of
the name of Charles Bell made a very great
discovery relating to the manner in which the
nerves arise. While waiting in London for
patients, he opened a private school in Soho
for teaching medical students the anatomy of
the body. He wished to explain to them
why the brain was divided into cerebrum,
cerebellum, and stem, and why the nerves
arose in one manner from the stem and in
another manner from the spinal cord. His
difficulty was due to the fact that in his day
anatomists supposed the brain to be the seat
of mind, will, and consciousness. The brain
they thought worked as a whole and could
despatch or receive a message by any nerve.
Bell came to the conclusion that this supposi-
tion must be wrong ; there must be an
explanation for the division of the brain into
parts and for the complex manner in which
nerves arose. Two reflections put him on the
track of his great discovery. Bell did not
know what we have seen, that stimulation of
part of the brain gave rise to muscular move-
ments, but he did know that there was a
nerve track which descended from the cere-
brum to the spinal cord through the brain-stem.
He guessed it was by this nerve path that the
will exercised its dominion over muscles, and
he noted that it descended in the front part
of the cord — the part from which the anterior

THE HUMAN BRAIN 29

roots arise. He concluded that the anterior
roots must also be for carrying messages to
muscles. He stimulated the anterior root
in a living animal and found the muscles
supplied from it were thrown into action. He
therefore supposed the anterior part of the
spinal cord and stem of the brain must be
for producing movements and all the nerves
which arise from their anterior parts must be
motor nerves. We have already seen that the
nerves of sight ended on the posterior part of
the stem of the brain. Bell inferred from
this fact that the posterior parts of the stem
and of the spinal cord must be connected with
sensation, for the optic nerve is purely for
conveying impressions from the eye to the
brain. He inferred that the posterior roots
of the spinal nerves which end in the posterior
part of the cord must be for conveying impres-
sions from the body to the brain. They are
the sensory roots. He stimulated them in
living animals, no movements in the muscles
were produced. Bell thus made the discovery
not only that the roots of a spinal nerve
were different in function, but the more
important one that the anterior part of the
great nerve stem was for motion and that the
posterior parts were connected with sensation.
We have seen that some nerves arise from the
brain-stem neither in line with the posterior
nor with the anterior roots but from an inter-
mediate line. Bell inferred they must be

so TPIE HUMAN BODY

peculiar in function because they were pecu-
liar in their origin. Time has proved that in
this he was also right ; seventy years later
Dr. Gaskell, of Cambridge, found that these
nerves (ninth, tenth and eleventh pairs of
cranial nerves) are difierent in nature. They
supply the heart, lungs and other viscera.
They are visceral nerves ; over these the will
has no control.

Having thus shown us the chief parts of
man's nervous system — the cerebrum, cere-
bellum, brain-stem, spinal cord and nerves,
our friend the anatomist returns to the part
he commenced with — the cerebral hemisphere
— ^in order that we may see some of the pecu-
liar features of the human brain. We wish
especially to see that part of the brain which
is connected with speech, for of all man's gifts
that of language is the most remarkable. A
clever parrot or a mynah bird may have a
voice and a power of imitation, but they cannot
be said to have the power to receive and con-
vey thought ; only a human brain has that
power. We have already been shown that
the convolution of the brain which controls
the movements of the lips and tongue is
situated in front of the lower end of the
central fissure (Fig. 1, p. 24). We might have
guessed that the convolution which serves
in speech — the inferior frontal convolution
— would be close by. It is a little way
further forwards. Its exact position in the

THE HUMAN BRAIN 81

head is indicated when a finger is placed
on the left temple, about an inch behind the
upper margin of the orbit. The inferior frontal
convolution is situated on the anterior margin
of the deepest depression or fissure of the
human brain — the Sylvian fissure, named after
Sylvius, who taught anatomy in Paris during
the seventeenth century. It was Broca,
working in Paris in the latter half of the
nineteenth century, who discovered that the
inferior frontal convolution of the left side
was connected with speech. The deep fissure
of Sylvius, as we have seen, passes backwards
and upwards on the side of the cerebral hemi-
sphere; below it is the temporal lobe of the
brain in the upper part of which the centre for
hearing is situated (Fig. 1). There is a con-
nexion or pathway between the hearing and
speech centres, for if we are deaf we must
necessarily be dumb ; the child listens as it
imitates its mother's voice.

The chief features of the human nervous
system having been thus demonstrated to us,
we take our leave of the students and of the
anatomical theatre, but before making our
exit from the medical school we may turn aside
for a minute to examine some specimens in
its museum. In an out-of-the-way corner
we come across the cast of a cleanly shaven
head, mapped out into sixty little plots, accord-
ing to the instructions of Dr. Gall, Avho founded
the study of phrenology at the beginning of

32 . THE HUMAN BODY

the nineteenth century. We notice that he
has placed the organ of hope on that part of
the head which Hes over the convolution
connected with the movements of the body ;
the organ of amativeness is situated on the
region of the cerebellum, while that of con-
structiveness is placed over the inferior frontal
convolution. We see that there is no corre-
spondence between Gall's doctrine of
phrenology and our modern knowledge of the
brain. Yet to this extent Gall was right ; the
various parts of the brain have their own parti-
cular function. The day may come when by
looking at the brain or even at the skull which
encloses it, we shall be able to tell the capabili-
ties of a child or man, but we have not yet
reached that point. Even should that day come
it is improbable that the phrenologist will be
able to tell character as well as the ordinary
man who merely observes the expression of the
face, the tone of the words, the actions and the
deeds of the person under observation. It
is true that a wide and high forehead, indicat-
ing great development of the frontal lobes of
the brain does incline us to anticipate capacity
in a man, yet we are often mistaken ; we
have known men of unquestioned ability with
low and narrow foreheads. Even the size of
the brain is not a safe indication. In most
cases one can form a fairly accurate opinion
of the size of the brain from the dimensions of
the head. In the average man the skull and the

THE HUIVIAN BRAIN 33

soft parts covering it do not vary in thickness
so much as to upset our calculations as to its
size or volume. It is true that the chambers
or ventricles ^vithin the brain may be dilated
and thus give the brain a false size, but that
is not a common condition. The size of the
brain depends to a certain extent on the bulk
of the body ; tall men on the average have
larger brains than small men, just as a New-
foundland dog has a bigger brain than a
fox-terrier. The increase of brain which is
directly due to increase in size of body gives no
increase of brain power ; hence tall and bulky
men are not necessarily more able than small
and short men. Thus, although we cannot
argue that because a man has a big brain he is
a man of great capacity, yet the fact remains
that many of the world's most famous men had
large heads and big brains. In the average
Englishman the brain weighs 1,360 grammes ^
(forty-eight ounces) ; in Cromwell it is said
to have been 2,231 grammes and in Byron
2,238 grammes. In Gambetta, the French
statesman, it weighed only 1,294 grammes.
Still, if size of brain is not a certain index of
capacity, it must be taken into account ;
Broca found when he compared the brains of
a group of eminent men with those of men of
ordinary ability that the average eminent
man had a brain eighty grammes above the
ordinary. When the sexes are compared it
1 An ounce is equal to 28*3 grammes,
C

84 THE HUMAN BODY

is found that the brain in man is 130 grammes
more than in woman on the average. Woman's
smaller brain is due chiefly to her smaller
body, for we have seen that size of body has
a direct influence on the size of brain. What-
ever view may be held as to the equality of the
sexes, woman cannot be disqualified on account
of the size of her brain. Therefore we must
admit that size is not a valuable index of
capacity, and the same must be admitted as
regards shape. Certain American Indian tribes
distort their heads and brains by the applica-
tion of bandages in infancy and yet their
mental capacity does not seem to be in any
way affected. We see, too, that the human
head varies much in shape ; in some it is
narrow and long ; in others broad and short ;
in others short and high or long and low. The
long and narrow head is common in England ;
the broad and short head in Germany and
France, and yet, as far as we know, the brain
which is within the short and wide skull has
no advantage over the one within the narrow
and long head. Thus all attempts to read
character and mental capacity by examining
the outward form of the head or of the brain
have so far been in vain.

Before leaving the museum of the medical
school there is another group of specimens
we ought to examine, namely, those which
show how the brain and spinal cord are formed
during the early stages in the development

THE HUMAN BRAIN 35

of the human body. The early stages of the
human embryo are represented by accurate
models in which the various parts are greatly
magnified. During the early part of the third
week of development the brain and spinal
cord are seen as part of the covering or epi-
dermis on the upper surface of the embryo ;
the area of epidermis which forms the future
nerve system is oblong in shape. In a model
showing a slightly older stage the oblong area
has become depressed to form a trough ;
presently the edges of the trough come together,
the margins of the embryonic skin closing over
the nerve trough, which now forms a tube en-
closed in the back or dorsal side of the embryo.
The front or head part of the tube forms the
brain ; the hinder part forms the spinal cord.
By the third month two outgrowths are evolved
from the brain part of the tube ; one of these
forms the cerebrum ; the other the cerebellum.
To one who is unfamiliar with the facts of
embryology it must seem a preposterous
thing to suppose that our brains can have
been evolved from a modification of an area of
skin. Still these are the facts of development ;
how otherwise can they be explained except by
supposing our brains are areas of the body-
covering which have been modified ? Children
are frequently born, as may be seen from
specimens in medical museums, where the
nerve plate has never been folded in but remains
spread out on the surface and merging at its

86 THE HUMAN BODY

edges into the skin of the back and of the head.
In such cases we see in the human body a
hark-back to a condition that must have been
represented in very low forms of animal life
at an early stage of the world's history. That
marvellous structure, the human brain, is the
product of millions of years ; its history begins
with life itself, millions upon millions of years
ago.

When the reader leaves that strange place,
a medical school, to which we have tried to
introduce him, and emerges on the street
to see men busy and energetic in all the affairs
of life he will find it difficult to believe that
there is aught in common between man's brain
and that of any other animal created. As he
walks along, however, he will notice how men
differ ; a man here and there has a brain
weight of 2,000 grammes, and perhaps a cor-
responding ability ; another has perhaps only
1000 grammes ; in seeking for man's allies it
is not the highest but the lowest human types
we must use as a starting-point. Amongst
Australian aborigines it is not uncommon to
find a woman with a brain weight of 1000
grammes or even less. When it is added
that the gorilla, the chimpanzee, the orang,
have brain weights that vary from 300 to 500
grammes he will conclude that there is a vast
difference in even weight between man and
the great anthropoids. There is a great gulf,
but it is not a fixed one. A fossil form of man.

THE HUMAN BRAIN 37

Pithecanthropus it is named, had a brain which
in point of size is intermediate between that
of modern man and the gorilla's. There is an
equally great gap between the great anthro-
poids— ^the gorilla, chimpanzee and orang
— and the small anthropoids — the gibbons.
If instead of comparing grown up men and
anthropoids we compare them both at birth
the difference is less. At birth the human
brain weighs about 800 grammes, about one-
fifth of the weight it ultimately reaches ; the
brains of the anthropoids are only slightly
less, 200 to 300 grammes. Thus, while
man's brain is only about one-fifth of its
adult weight at birth, that of the anthropoid is
already two-thirds. Man has to be sheltered
and educated ; the anthropoid baby has ta
face the realities of life soon after birth.
When we survey man and the anthro-
poids at birth, the brain difference does not
seem an insuperable barrier between them.
Indeed, in all mammals the brain grows
much more rapidly than the rest of the body ;
this is especially the case in man. By the end
of the second year the human brain has reached
two-thirds of its adult size, it has then reached
the same relative degree of development that
the anthropoid has reached at birth. There is
another peculiar fact about the growth of the
human brain ; it has reached its maximum
size by the twentieth year. After the
twentieth year, or even a little before, it

38 THE HUMAN BODY

begins to lose in weight and goes on losing until
old age, when the decrease becomes more
rapid. As Professor Karl Pearson has said,
man's prime is not a period, it is merely a
point of time.

CHAPTER III

man's place amongst animals

Most men are not aware of the toil and trouble
zoologists have taken to name and number
the animals of the earth and to arrange
them in groups according to the manner
in which their bodies are made. We know
the commoner animals as they come before
us, but do not trouble about the relation-
ship of one beast to another. As regards
man, he seems to us so very different to
all the common animal forms that we can-
not believe him to be related to them at all,
but prefer to regard him as standing isolated
and alone, as a being of a peculiar order.
When, however, we begin to study his body
and compare it, organ by organ, with that of
other animals, we see that his isolation dis-
appears, and that it is the thick veil of civili-
zation in which he has so completely hidden
himself that misleads us regarding his true
position in the animal kingdom. The reader
will see that I am preparing his mind for the
kind of evidence to be produced in this
chapter — evidence as to " Man's place in
Nature," as Huxley happily named it in his

39

40 THE HUMAN BODY

celebrated book published in 1863. We
propose to visit an institution in which Huxley
loved to work and to lecture, namely, the
Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of
England, situated right in the heart of London
on the south side of Lincoln's Inn Fields.
The museum has a history ; its foundation
was laid in the latter half of the eighteenth
century by the great surgeon, John Hunter,
one of the very greatest men this country has
ever produced. He was centuries ahead of
his time, and hence he is not yet properly
appreciated. The hours he could steal from
work and sleep he devoted to the study of all
forms of life ; but instead of describing on
paper what he saw and discovered, he left the
actual specimens themselves — all duly pre-
served, to tell their own stories to future
generations. Since his day men like Sir
Richard Owen and Sir William Flower have
added to and tended Hunter's priceless
collection, so that here we can study the
evidence afforded by man's body better than
anywhere else in the world. Hunter's in-
variable method was to commence with the
simplest and lowest forms of life and work
gradually through the more complex which
led on to the highest — man himself. As we
enter the museum it soon becomes evident
that it will answer our present purpose best to
reverse Hunter's order, and in each instance
commence with the human form.

MAN'S PLACE AMONGST ANBIALS 41

As we pass through the first and second
rooms of the museum we see the skulls and
skeletons of all races of mankind, European,
Asiatic, American, African and Australian,
in case after case, but only the practised eye
picks out the peculiar features of each race ;
as far as the evidence of the skeleton goes
mankind appears to be a very uniform
species. It is in the third room that the first
real break is encountered, where the human
series ends and the anthropoid skeletons begin.
The skeleton of the gorilla is not at all human
in appearance, the great crests on the skull,
the massive jaws and face, the long stout arms,
the short lower limbs with a thumb-like great
toe, seem to assure us that even the most
man-like of apes is a long way off from man
himself. Yet when we look more closely we see
that every bone of man's body is present in
the gorilla, they occupy exactly the same
place in the skeleton ; each bone shows the
same leading features ; the differences relate
merely to proportion, size and detail. When
we look at the skull of the young gorilla,
before the massive, brute-like crests have
appeared, the human resemblance is more
marked. In the skulls of the adult chim-
panzee, these cranial ridges, which are
developed to give attachment to the great
muscles of mastication, are much smaller
than in the gorilla. In the orang they are
intermediate in size. They are much larger

42 THE HUMAN BODY

in the male than in the female anthropoids.
The gorilla and chimpanzee are from Africa ;
the orang from Borneo and Sumatra, It is
thus in the forests of the tropical parts of
the earth that we find the animals which
most nearly resemble man in structure.
There are various races of gorillas, chimpanzees
and orangs, just as there are various races of
mankind, each race being a native of its own
peculiar district or country.

Passing from the cases containing the
skulls and skeletons of the three great an-
thropoids to those in which the small anthro-
poids— the gibbons — are contained, we note
another break in the series, quite as marked
as the one between man and the great
anthropoids. The head and body are much
smaller ; there are the same bones set
together in the same order but the proportions
are different. There are numerous races of
gibbons scattered through the forests of the
far East, from China in the north to Java in the
south. In the series of cases which follow,
containing first the skeletons of the many
kinds of monkeys of the Old World and then
those of the New World, we are made aware
of the impossibility of representing animals
in their right relationship by grouping them
one after another in a single file. To be right,
there ought to be a double or a triple file here,
one for the Old World monkeys, another for
those of America, and an intermediate one for

MAN'S PLACE AMONGST ANIMALS 43

the gibbons. Between the gibbons and the
monkeys there is a wider gulf than any we have
so far seen, yet we cannot well say the one is
higher than the other. In certain features
we see that the gibbons are related to the
Old- World monkeys, in others to those of the
New World ; we believe that there must be
extinct ancestral gibbons which, did we know
them, would show us that these three forms
of primates have all arisen from a common
stock at a long past period of the world's
history. It is the American monkeys which
interest us most, because amongst them
we find quite small and low forms, such as
the marmoset, which takes us a little way
towards the kind of animals shown in the
museum cases following those containing the
monkeys — the lemurs. Between the marmo-
sets and the lemurs, however, is a much
wider gap than we have yet tried to cross ; we
realize that we are passing from one order
of animals to another, from the primates
to the primatoids. Beyond this point in
the animal scale we do not intend to pass.
If at first we had seen the skeleton of man
placed side by side with that of the tiny
marmoset we would have denied that there
could be any possibility of a common origin
for these two, but when we pass from the one
to the other through a series which, while
showing many breaks, leads us step by step
from the one to the other, we begin to see

44 THE HUMAN BODY

that the miracle of man's primate origin is not
so impossible as it appears at first. We note,
too, that the links which we miss most lie,
not between man and his nearest allies,
but between the gibbon and the monkeys
grouped near it.

Leaving the rooms in which the skeletons
are shown we make our way to another in
which the teeth of all kinds of animals are
displayed, in order that we may ascertain
what guidance they can give us regarding
man's place in the animal scale. In the first
place we examine the dentitions of young
children ; in the upper, as in the lower jaw,
we observe that twenty teeth are already
erupted ; of the twenty, eight are cutting or
incisor teeth ; four are canine or eye-teeth ;
eight are grinding or molar teeth. The
teeth just enumerated form the milk set.
Embedded in the bone beneath the gum we
see the permanent teeth in process of forma-
tion ; there are sixteen in each jaw. Of the
thirty-two permanent teeth, twenty take the
place of the milk teeth, the eight milk molars
being replaced by teeth of a different type — •
the premolars. The permanent molars, twelve
in number, are added to the milk set. To
make room for them a growth takes place in
the jaws which leads to the marked changes
we see taking place in the face during child-
hood and adolescence. The four first molar
teeth erupt about the fifth year, the four

MAN'S PLACE AMONGST ANIjMALS 45

second, about the fourteenth year ; the four
third molars or wisdom teeth are most
irregular in their appearance in us Europeans ;
they may cut at any time between the twen-
tieth and the fortieth year, and in a consider-
able number of people they never erupt
at all.

In the anthropoids the third molars
always come into use ; in the males they
erupt with or even before the canine teeth.
The canine teeth of the male anthropoids
are large and need a considerable nmnber
of months to reach their full growi:h after
they have pierced the gum. While the
permanent teeth of anthropoids are all
in place by the fourteenth year, the human
dentition, even in primitive races of mankind,
is not complete until the twentieth year,
and as we have just seen, in European and
civilized races the period of completion
may be delayed until quite late in life. In
primitive races, as was also the case in
ancient Europeans, the wisdom teeth never
fail to erupt. It is only in European or
civilized races that there is a marked tendency
to a suppression of the last or most posterior
of the molar teeth. There is also a tendency
for an arrest of the gro"\\i:h of the jaws in the
same races. Civilization appears to be exer-
cising a deteriorating influence on human
teeth and jaws. It seems as if our wisdom
teeth had become unnecessary, and that in

46 THE HIBIAN BODY

this matter our dental constitution is out of
keeping with our present-day needs.

On the other hand, one does occasionally
see in the skulls of native Australians and of
other native races, an extra or fourth molar
added. A supernumerary molar is frequently
seen in the dentitions of orangs and gorillas.
These extra molars do not appear to be
reversions to a former condition, but are
really of the nature of a progressive adaptation.

As we pass from the human specimens to
those illustrating the anthropoid dentitions,
noting as we go the large teeth and strong
jaws of native races — such as the Australian
and Oceanic aborigines — we are at once
impressed with the massive jaws of man's
nearest allies. They project forwards to form
a decided muzzle. In the infant anthropoids,
however, we note the same twenty milk
teeth, arranged as in the maxillae of the
human child ; in the adolescent anthropoids
we see the same number of permanent teeth
coming into position as in human jaws.
The wisdom teeth appear as soon as or even
before the canine teeth. It is the canine
teeth which characterize the anthropoid
dentition ; instead of occupying a place in
the regular series they project above their
neighbours as conical tusks. They are much
larger in the males than in the females ; they
are especially small in the female chimpanzees ;
the canines of the milk set are much less

MAN'S PLACE AJMONGST ANI:MALS 47

prominent than the canines of the permanent
set. We observe, farther, that the cusps
of the crowns, and the fangs of the roots
of the teeth are arranged on the same plan as
in man ; the differences are chiefly those of
detail. In the small anthropoid or gibbon the
number of teeth in each set is the same
as in the large anthropoids ; the gibbon's
teeth are much smaller, with the exception
of the canine teeth, which are especially long
and sharp in both males and females.

When, however, we come to examine the
teeth in monkeys we see many points of
difference. In the Old World monkeys the
number of teeth in both the permanent and
milk dentitions remains the same as in man, but
the cusps of the molar teeth are arranged on a
totally different principle. In the New World
monkeys the cusps of the teeth are arranged
as in man and the anthropoids, but the
number of teeth is different. They have
twelve instead of eight premolar teeth.
We have reason to believe that primates had
originally sixteen premolar teeth ; the
American monkeys have lost four, while
man, the anthropoids and Old World monkeys
have lost eight of the original number.
Occasionally we see an extra premolar appear
in the human dentition. If we were to fix
man's position among animals by the evidence
of his teeth alone, we should place him on
one side of the great anthropoids, and the

48 THE HUMAN BODY

gibbon, at about the same distance, on the
other side of them, but all three included
in the same group. In another group of
equal value to the one just mentioned must
be placed the Old World monkeys, while a
third would contain the American monkeys.
Having surveyed the evidence afforded
by the teeth displayed in the odontological
room we move to the galleries of the
museum, where we shall find Hunter at his
very best. The preparations are grouped to
show how the various functions of the animal
body are carried out — ^the organs for loco-
motion, the organs of circulation, of respiration,
for reproduction and for the purposes of sense
and nerve action. In every series the
preparations begin with organs selected from
the lowest forms of life ; each series is arranged
to show the various steps which lead on from
the lowest to the highest. The particular
specimens we wish to examine at present are
those which digest the food and absorb
nutrition — ^the stomach, the bowel, and the
various glands connected with digestion such
as the liver and pancreas. We see at once
that these organs are similar in shape and
arrangement in man, the great anthropoids,
and in the gibbon, but when we pass down
the series to the organs which represent the
monkeys of the Old and of the New World,
we see that the arrangement of the viscera
in the abdomen is different, and even the

]\IAN'S PLACE AIMONGST ANI]\IALS 49

shapes of the organs are altered. It is true
that in the liver of the gorilla we note deep
indentations or fissures which are absent from
this organ in other anthropoids and in man ;
we see in this a minor but puzzling peculiarity
of the gorilla's anatomy. In all these higher
primate forms we note on the right side of the
abdomen, just above the groin, that the small
intestine ends in a capacious caecum, the
name given to the dilated commencement of
the great bowel. At the closed and lower
end of the caecum, in the anthropoid, as in man,
is attached a narrow tube — the notorious
appendix vermiformis. It terminates blindly
below and hangs freely within the abdomen,
lying more or less behind the csecum, into
which its upper end opens. Vermiform or
worm-like is not an unhappy term, for in life
the appendix may be seen to sloAvly twist
and turn as its muscular coat passes into
action during digestion. It varies in size
according to the age of the individual and
the state of digestion. In the gorilla it is
of the hickness of the small finger, but twice
as long ; in man it is shorter and smaller,
but in him its shape and size are subject to the
utmost variation after puberty. Unfortun-
ately, we do not know the uses of the appendix,
but on many occasions the writer has noted
in the anthropoids and in children that the
contents of the caecum pass freely into it.
In the gibbon it is quite usual \K> find within

50 THE HUMAN BODY

it seeds of fruit, as big as cherry stones,
during active and normal digestion. So far
we have never known of appendicitis occurring
in anthropoids Hving in a state of nature,
but they do become Hable to this disease
when kept in captivity and fed on a human
diet. In monkeys the caecum terminates
below in a blunt conical point, which repre-
sents the appendix, but no real narrow
worm-like appendix is present. Yet it is
very possible that at one time an appendix
may have been present in monkeys, for in
lemurs, which represent an older type than
the true primates, a true appendix is found.
On the other hand, it is possible that the
highest group of primates and the lemurs
have acquired an appendix independently.
It is not necessary to make a further survey
of the organs of digestion ; we see that if
we were to classify animals according to the
abdominal viscera, we should have to place
man, the great anthropoids and the small
anthropoids or gibbons in a single group.
Even to the detail of possessing an appendix
vermiformis they are the same.

In another gallery we may examine the
evolution of the nerve system from the lowest
to the highest. At the end of the series are
placed the massive and complex brains of
various races of mankind ; much further
down the series we note the small and simple
brain of the marmoset. In shape it is not

MAN'S PLACE AIMONGST ANIMALS 51

unlike the brain of the human foetus at the
end of the third month of development. We
note that the brains of the great anthropoids
in size and complexity are intermediate
to the comparatively simple brain of the
gibbon on the one hand and the human brain
on the other. One point rather impresses
us. As far as the skeleton was concerned
we saw that the gibbon and the monkey were
widely separated, but when we come to
examine their brains the difference between
them appears to be much less in degree.
Yet in every point in which the brain of the
gibbon departs from that of the monkey it
approaches the cerebral forms of the great
anthropoids.

We might examine each system of the
human body in turn, but it is unnecessary,
for the anatomical evidence to be thus
obtained would but bear out what we have
already gathered. We see that man is a
member of that group of mammals we have
named the higher primates. He is one of
the three families included in that group.
The central family is represented by the
great anthropoids ; man on the one side and
the gibbon on the other represent the two
other families. All three families we believe
to have arisen from a common ancestral
stock, but while the gibbon has clung to the
ancestral form, man has progressively and
aberrantly evolved to his present position.

52 THE HUMAN BODY

The great anthropoids have been steered in
a middle course, and will without doubt at
no distant date be extinguished when Euro-
pean civilization reaches their jungle homes.
Then will there be a wide gap between man
and his nearest living allies.

Of late years we have obtained evidence
of another character which throws a strange
light on the close relationship which exists
between man and the great anthropoids.
We have been in the habit of thinking that
many diseases were peculiar to man, and that
no other animal could be infected with them.
Such, for example, was believed to be the case
in syphilis. If an ordinary monkey is infected
with this disease, no real inoculation takes
place ; at the most only a passing disturbance
is manifested. The chimpanzee and orang
can be really infected, as has been proved
by those who are seeking to find a remedy
for a disease which often produces most
disastrous effects on man. The great anthro-
poids suffer only from the milder effects of
the disease. Yet we have proof here that
the constitutions of the great anthropoids
have much in common with that of man,
which is comprehensible if both are descend-
ants of a common stock. Professor Griinbaum
has shown that the anthropoids are also
susceptible to other human infectious diseases.
Bacteriologists have thrown a flood of light
on the constitutional nature of animals.

MAN'S PLACE AMONGST ANIMALS 53

In the course of their researches a method was
discovered by which a minute quantity of the
blood of any animal can be detected. The
manner in which the test is carried out is
highly technical. A special solution is pre-
pared for testing the blood of each animal.
We shall suppose that the solution prepared
is for detecting human blood. When to this
solution is added a fluid in which a stain of
human blood has been dissolved a cloudiness
appears in the solution, and a precipitate
occurs in the test-tube. No other blood except
human will give the full precipitate. If a
solution of dog's blood is added there is no
result. Professor Nuttall found, however,
that a precipitate could be obtained with the
blood of anthropoids — not so plentifully as
is the case with human blood, but yet enough
to show that in " blood relationship " man
and the anthropoids stand very near together.

CHAPTER IV

STATURE, PROPORTION, AND GROWTH

In this chapter we propose again to visit
the Hunterian Museum in London to see
those specimens which illustrate the growth
and size of the human body. We wish
especially to ascertain when and how man
came to have a stature which varies between
five and six feet, or to use the more con-
venient metric system, between 1,500 and
1,800 millimetres.

If we cross Waterloo Bridge in the throng
of city workers hurrying to business, and
thread our way to Lincoln's Inn Fields in
the press of morning traffic, we have ample
opportunity for seeing how varied the human
body is in size, in shape, and in carriage.
If we were to measure a thousand men as
they pass by we should find that rather more
than 500 of them had a stature between 5 ft.
5 J in. and 5 ft. 9 J in. ; we may a,ccept the height
of the average man as 5 ft. 7 J in. (1,715 mm.).
In the thousand men we should probably
find ten who were under 5 ft. (1,525 mm.),
and three or four who were over 6 ft. We

54

STATURE, PROPORTION, GROWTH 55

observe, too, that the women are shghter
in build and shorter in stature. On the
average their stature falls 4 J in. below that
of men ; more than half of them are between
5 ft. 1 in. and 5 ft. 5 in. The growth of
women is not regulated by the same laws that
hold good for men. If we could follow these
busy people to their offices and watch them
seated at their desks we should be surprised
to see that some who were apparently tall as
they walked along appear to be of average
height when seated ; others who in the street
seemed of short stature now appear to be of an
average height. It is evident that stature
depends on two distinct factors, the length of
the lower limbs, and the length of the trunk or
body. The sitting height gives us the height
of the body. When a man or woman who are
of the same height, sit down, it is usually the
case that the woman appears the taller,
because her body is proportionally longer
than that of the man, while her lower limbs
are relatively shorter.

Arriving at the museum we make our way
to the various rooms which will provide us
with evidence as to when mankind came by
its present size of body. Our search lies first
among the specimens which represent the bones
of men who lived in Europe when its northern
half, including the greater part of Britain,
lay under ice. How long ago that may be
cannot be accurately estimated, but most

56 THE HUMAN BODY

geologists are agreed that the bones we are
now looking at belonged to men who lived
100,000 years ago, or even more. When we
compare these bones of fossil men with our own
we see that their owners were stouter made but
not so tall as we are. The famous Neanderthal
man, whose bones were discovered in 1857 at
Neanderthal in Germany, stood about five feet
four inches in height. Indeed all the examples
which have been discovered of the Neanderthal
type of man show us that ancient man was
far from being the giant which fable and
tradition have led us to expect. Indeed we
know of no tall men in Europe until the
glacial period was drawing to a close. The
Cro-Magnon race then appears in France ;
many of the men of that race stood six feet
high ; but the opposite sex appear to have
been only a little taller than modern women.
The very earliest form of man yet discovered
— ^the fossil man of Java, usually named
Pithecanthropus — was about five feet six
inches high. The evidence so far leads us to
believe that our present stature and size of
body are part of an ancient inheritance, one
which has not been altered by the passage of
hundreds of thousands of years.

We must approach the problem in another
way, for we have not as yet discovered the
ancestral human forms which are older than
Pithecanthropus. When the skeleton of man
is compared mth those of the great anthropoid

STATURE, PROPORTION, GROWTH 57

apes — ^the gorilla, chimpanzee and orang, it
is at once seen that as regards size, all of these
form a uniform group. The adult male
chimpanzee is about the same weight as an
average man — viz. from ten to eleven stones
(sixty-three — seventy kilos). The adult male
orang is heavier — about twelve to thirteen
stones, while the adult male gorilla is about
fourteen stones. The gibbons or small anthro-
poids weigh from fourteen to eighteen pounds,
only about a tenth of the great anthropoids.
Monkeys vary in weight from two to thirty
pounds. In the standing posture, man's long
lower extremities give him an advantage over
the short-legged anthropoids ; he stands nearly
a head higher than they. But if we measure
them in the seated posture man's superior-
ity disappears. While his head and trunk
measure about thirty-four inches, those of the
chimpanzee reach to about thirty-five inches,
the orang about thirty-seven inches, and the
gorilla about thirty-nine inches. The head
and trunk of the gibbon measure only about
twenty inches, approximately the same as
one would find in a boy of about two years of
age. Now we know that great anthropoids
were in existence at a period which predates
the fossil man of Java ; in the fossil beds of the
North of India (Siwalik), which geologists
regard as formed in the Pliocene period of
the earth's history, bones of an anthropoid as
big as the orang have been found. The very

5S THE HUMAN BODY

earliest of the large fossil anthropoids which
have yet been discovered is the kind now
named Dryopithecus. The bones of this
anthropoid, which was smaller than the
chimpanzee, but much larger than the gibbon,
have been found in the strata of France and
of Germany which geologists regard as formed
in the Miocene period — ^the one which precedes
the Pliocene. At a still earlier date in the
Miocene period we know that anthropoids
similar in form and size to the modern gibbons
were in existence, but we do not yet know of
any big form of primate which is older than
the Miocene period. We have every reason
to suppose that it was during the early part
of that period — how many millions of years
ago one does not dare to hazard a guess —
that the large bodied primates were evolved.
These large Miocene primates appear to be
the stock from which the great anthropoids
and man have descended. The size of our
bodies then is an old inheritance — one which
has come down to us through millions of
years.

We return to that part of the museum
where we can study the growth of the human
skeleton. Before us there are arranged speci-
mens, row upon row, showing the develop-
ment of the bones of the child before birth. It
will be better, however, to confine our attention
to one bone, and we select the femur or thigh-
bone, because by watching the manner in

STATURE, PROPORTION, GROWTH 59

which it is formed and increased in length,
a guide will be given us to the way in
which we attain to our adult height. Up
to the seventh week, when the human foetus
is less than an inch in length, the thigh-bone
is formed of cartilage ; there then appears in
the cartilagenous shaft a centre of bone form-
ation, and the cartilage is gradually replaced
by bone until only its extremities remain as
cartilage. At the end of the ninth nxonth
the child is born, being then about twenty
inches long, and seven lbs. in weight. In the
skeletons showing the condition just before
birth, we see that a separate centre of bone
formation has appeared in the cartilage at the
lower end of the femur, in those showing the
skeleton of the child some months after birth
we note a centre has also appeared in the car-
tilaginous head at the upper end of the femur.
Passing on to the skeletons which show the con-
dition in the eighth year we see that the ends
of the bones are represented by separate parts
or epiphyses, each of which is fixed to the shaft
by a plate of cartilage. These plates of car-
tilage which join the epiphyses to the shaft
are seats of most active formation of bone ;
the new bone laid down at these lines causes
the femur to increase in length. On the surface
of the femur also new bone is being laid down
and thus the thigh-bone increases in thickness.
These lines of growth — epiphyseal lines they are
called — keep open so long as growth in stature

60 THE HUMAN BODY

continues ; when, however, they become
closed growth in height is over. Hence in the
skeletons of women who have died about the
age of twenty, and in those of men at the age
of twenty-four, we find that most of the growth
lines are closed. There is, however, a consid-
erable degree of variation as regards the date
of closure, for we know some men who grew
very little after their twentieth year, and
others who kept on adding to their stature
until they were twenty-six or even older.

What causes these lines of growth to close
at a definite period of life and prevents them
from ever again becoming opened is still a
mystery. There are two celebrated skeletons
in an adjoining case of this museum which
throw some light on the circumstances which
determine growth and stature. These two
skeletons are placed side by side. One is that
of Charles Byrne, who was exhibited in London
as " O'Brian the Irish Giant " and died in
1783 at the age of twenty-two. The skeleton
has a height of seven feet eight and two-fifths
of an inch (2,358 mm.). It towers above
the skeleton of Caroline Crachami, "the
Sicilian dwarf," who was also exhibited in
London and died at the age of nine. Her
skeleton is little bigger than that of a newly
born child ; it is only twenty inches high,
whereas, if growth had been normal, she should
have measured about forty-eight inches at the
age of nine. The giant on the other hand is

STATURE, PROPORTION, GROWTH 61

twenty-four inches taller than the average man.
If we could discover what caused arrest
of development in the one, and over-develop-
ment in the other, we should be in a fair way
to solving the mystery of growth. Towards
the end of the nineteenth century it was
discovered that giants of the type of 0''Brian
were really the subjects of disease ; in all of
them the small pituitary gland, which lies
in the base of the skull under the brain, is the
seat of an overgrowth, often of a tumour. In
some manner an increase or alteration of the
secretion of the pituitary gland, which passes
into the circulation, acts upon the growing lines
of the bones and stimulates them so that the
bones increase in length at a rapid rate, thus
producing the condition known as giantism.
The increased gro\^i:h is apparently due to an
increase in the amount of pituitary secretion.
The muscles and other neighbouring parts
are similarly affected and grow at a corres-
ponding rate. We infer then that one of the
circumstances which regulates growlh is the
secretion of the pituitary gland. It seems
within the bounds of possibility that we may
yet be able to add even a cubit to the stature
if we should so wish. Near by is the skeleton
of an unfortunate man who was the subject
of a disease of the pituitary gland ; the gland
had become enormously enlarged during adult
life and after the growing lines of the bones
had become closed. A cast of his face shows

62 THE HUMAN BODY

how massive and ugly the face has become ;
Hps are thickened ; the ridges over the orbits
form great bulging masses which overshadow
the eyes ; the nose and face are really gigantic.
His hands and feet are enlarged and overgrown.
The backbone, abnormally curved, is much
longer than is usual, while the chest is huge
and barrel-shaped. All these changes occur-
red slowly, after the man was fully grown,
and completely changed his outward appear-
ance and his nature. We suppose that if the
growth lines had still been open when the
disease set in he would have become of great
stature. The man was the subject of a dis-
ease of growth which we name acromegaly,
and which we believe to be due primarily
to an enlargement or tumour of the pituitary
gland. In all of these cases the pituitary is
enlarged.

In the skeleton of little Caroline Crachami
we see the result of an opposite disease, but
its exact nature we do not yet know. Instead
of being about forty-eight inches high as the
skeleton of a child of nine should be, it is
only twenty inches. The bones, too, have
scarcely passed beyond the stage reached in the
skeleton of a child at birth ; there has been
a complete arrest of growth. It is possible
that the condition may result from a deficiency
of secretion from the pituitary gland, but there
are grounds for suspecting that another gland
which supplies an internal secretion is also at

STATURE, PROPORTION, GROWTH 63

fault — namely the thyroid, which we have
already seen in the neck. ]\Iany of the dwarfs
who have figured in history and in fable
have suffered from the same disease as Cra-
chami. The famous dwarf, Jeffrey Hudson,
a favourite at the Court of Charles I., was
one of these. Even as a young man he was
no taller than Crachami, and was served up
in a pie at the table of the Duke of Buckingham
as a surprise for the Queen of Charles I., to
whom he became an engaging and sharp-witted
little page. At a later stage of his manhood
growth set in and he became forty-two inches
in height by his thirtieth year. We see then
that growth may be delayed until a late
period in life.

We have already noted the fact that men
are as a rule four or five inches taller than
women. In determining the greater stature
of the male it is possible that the sexual organs
may have a powerful influence. It is now
known that sexual organs have not only the
duty of renewing the race, — but have also,
by a secretion thrown into the circulation,
an influence on the nutrition, well-being and
growth of the body. We have only to look
at domesticated animals and note the differ-
ence between the ox and the bull to see how
deep-rooted the influence of the genital glands
can be in shaping the size and form of the body.
If we study the growth of children it becomes
very apparent that the sexual organs play a

64 THE HUMAN BODY

large part in regulatingthe rate of development.
Between birth and the twentieth year there
are two spurts of growth. The first takes
place during the first and second year — ^until
the child learns to walk ; in that period the
stature shoots up from twenty inches to thirty-
three or thirty-four inches — at a rate of about
seven inches a year. Thereafter the increase
is at the rate of about two and a half inches
yearly until the age of puberty approaches
and then the second spurt occurs. In Great
Britain girls grow more rapidly than boys
between the ages of ten and fifteen, and for
two or three years are actually taller than boys
of their own age. They are more precocious
in their growth than boys. The thirteenth
year is the one of most rapid growth in girls,
whereas in boys it is the sixteenth. Between
his fourteenth and sixteenth year a boy usually
shoots up about eight inches. We know that
at these later periods of rapid growth in the
two sexes, the sexual glands are also undergoing
a maturing change in structure and function,
and we have good reason to suppose that the
extra growth is directly due to a secretion
these are supplying to the circulation. We
thus see that our stature and our bodily growth
are determined or at least regulated by a series
of glands which exert an influence through
their secretions.

Our stature and growth also depend on
food, exercise and fresh air ; there can be no

STATURE, PROPORTION, GROWTH 65

doubt of that. It is well known that boys of
well-to-do people at good schools are taller,
heavier, and stronger than boys of poor people
in schools situated within the slums of big
cities. How much of the difference is due to
food and environment and how much is the
result of heredity, it is difficult to say, for
the better-off class in England is taller than
the poorest class. Children naturally inherit
stature as well as other features of their
parents. The stature of English soldiers is 1,701
mm.^; Oxford undergraduates, however, are
1,726 mm. — an inch taller, and those measured
were not fully grown. A group of Scotch
soldiers measured 1,713 mm. ; a group of Irish,
1,707, of Germans, 1,696, of Italians, 1,620 mm.
and the soldier of the United States, 1,736 mm.
The various races of European origin have a
wonderfully uniform mean stature ; 5 feet
6 inches may be accepted as the mean stature
of the average European man ; the mean in
some countries, such as Italy, falls to nearly
two inches below the mean, while in another,
such as Scotland, it rises about that amount
above the mean.

As we survey the skeletons of the various
races of the world which have been collected
in the Hunterian Museum, it becomes very
apparent that it is amongst the negro and
negroid races that the greatest fluctuation in
stature is found. The late Dr. MacTier Pirrie,
1 1,700 mm. = 5 ft. 7 in. lm. = 25'4mm,
B

66 THE HUMAN BODY

who lost his life while investigating the negroes
of the Sudan, found that the Dinkas, who live
in the valley of the White Nile, had a mean
stature of 1,801.6 mm. — a fraction under
5 feet 11 inches. The Dinkas are amongst
the tallest races in the world. Their lower
extremities are remarkably long, making up
more than half their height. Where the Sudan
merges in the watershed between the Nile and
the Congo basins, a negroid tribe — ^the Akkas
— represent one of the smallest if not actually
the smallest race of mankind. The men
stand about 4 ft. 6 in. high, the women about
4 ft. 2 in. Further south, within the Congo
Free State, numerous pygmy races of negroes
are found forming settlements and amongst
negro tribes of average stature. Still further
south, in the region of Cape Colony, another
pygmy stock is found — the Bushman race.
They are taller than the Akkas, the men
measuring 4 ft, 9 in., the women 4 ft. 7 J in.
Various pygmy peoples are found scattered
in the Far East — in the Andaman Islands,
the Malay Peninsula, the Philippine Islands,
and in New Guinea. These Eastern pygmies
are also negroid races with various features in
common with the African pygmies. At first
sight it may seem somewhat remarkable that
the tallest and the shortest races should be
found in the great negro division of mankind.
When, however, we remember that stature is
regulated by the action of certain glands, it

STATURE, PROPORTION, GROWTH 67

becomes apparent that if the normal action of
these regulators of growth is unfixed a double
result may be expected — the production of
small races on the one hand by under-action
and tall races on the other by over-action on
the part of the glands. The variability of
stature is a characteristic of negro tribes.

At one time the idea gained some support
that long ago Europe was inhabited by a pygmy
people and that it was from such a race that
traditions of elves and fairies had arisen. The
basis of this theory was the discovery of bones
of people of small stature amongst the graves
of a race who lived in Europe when well worked
flints were used as cutting and fighting tools.
Professor Kollmann, who discovered these
bones, thought they indicated the existence of
a race of small people, but we now know that
these small people formed only a very small
proportion of the population to which they
belonged.

We have thus made a brief survey of our
present knowledge relating to stature. We
have seen there is no basis for the belief that
we are descended from giants, nor is there any
real ground for believing our ancestors were
pygmies. Our present size of body appears to
be an old character — one which we inherited
in common with the great anthropoids.
Further we see that our stature is regulated
by the action of certain small glands, and that
over-action or under-action on the part of these

68 THE HUMAN BODY

may produce great fluctuations in stature.
Dwarfs and giants may arise as sports in
any race of mankind. Amongst negro and
negroid peoples we see an especial tendency
for the production of tall races on the one
hand and short or pygmy races on the other.

CHAPTER V

THE ERECT POSTURE

There is some reason to think that man,
when he institutes comparison between his
own structure and carriage with those of other
animals, is rather prejudiced in his own
favour. It is very apparent from his Hterature
that he has come to regard his own body as
the most perfect organization yet created,
and not without reason, for he has proved
himself the conquering and universal species.
The feature of his body which he prizes most
is its erect posture ; in that he sees a distinc-
tive mark of superiority, and yet were a
visitor from an outside world to appear as an
impartial judge it would be the anomaly of
this character rather than its superiority
which would impress him. The earliest
vertebrates adapted for life on land trailed
their horizontal bodies along the mud or
marsh on four weak limbs. In birds the
two fore limbs have been converted into
wings for an easy and swift progression in the
air, while the two hinder limbs, with the
thighs bent under the body, have been re-
served for locomotion on land or water.

69

70 THE HUMAN BODY

In mammals generally, the four limbs have
become adapted for rapid carriage of the
body ; in some they have become modified
for swimming, in others for climbing. Amongst
mammals there are two forms which carry
their bodies in a really peculiar manner, these
are the kangaroo and man. In both the
hinder pair of extremities have become
specialized for locomotion, but there is no
real resemblance in their styles of progression
nor in the manner in which the body is carried.
In man only have the lower limbs been
brought into a line with the body, so that
thigh and trunk form a pillar perpendicular
to the ground on which he treads. Our
posture and manner of walking never strike
us as in any way peculiar ; we are rather
proud of them, because they are characters
which mark us off from all other animals.
If, however, it had been one of the ordinary
four-footed mammals which had been endowed
with our powers of observation and criticism,
it is much to be feared that those peculiar
features which we are so proud of would have
been the subject of joke or criticism.

How then has man come by his remarkable
posture of to-day ? Many who have written
about this phase of man's evolution have not
fully realized the difficulty of the problem.
They have assumed that at a far past stage of
the world's history a form of monkey had
abandoned a climbing life in the forests and

ERECT POSTURE 71

become adapted to a life on the open ground.
In place of running on all fours, a form of ape,
they suppose, was gradually evolved which
waddled on its two lower limbs. These were
bent towards the belly at the hips and flexed
at the knees, while the upper extremities
were used as crutches to assist its unsteady
gait. Such a method of progression is
adopted by anthropoid apes in a state of
captivity. It is further supposed that the
lower extremities became by degrees straight-
ened out at the hips and knees, gradually
gaining in strength until they were able to
support the head and trunk erect. The
manner in which the crawling infant learns
to walk gives some support to this hypothesis.
The evolution of our posture is not nearly
so simple a problem as those wTiters and
thinkers have supposed. The changes implied
are much greater than a mere modification
of limbs and of backbone ; such a change
entails a complete revolution in the organiza-
tion of the body. As an animal runs along
on all fours its viscera are supported on the
flat muscles which pass along the lower
surface and sides of its body ; turn such an
animal up into a human posture and all the
viscera tend to sag down to the lower part of
the abdomen. With the evolution of the
upright posture a new method had to be
evolved for keeping the viscera in place.
The mechanism of respiration must also be

72 THE HUMAN BODY

changed. Monkeys, like dogs and cats, have
their chests flattened from side to side ;
when the animal stands or runs its chest is
slung between its forelegs. When such an
animal is turned upright and rjiade to support
itself thus, all the muscles of respiration are
disturbed in their action and act with diffi-
culty. Hence we find that the human chest
is shaped quite difierently to that of four-
footed animals, and its chief muscles have
undergone an alteration in their disposition.
The human chest is flattened, not from side to
side, but from before backwards. The auto-
matic nervous mechanism which regulates
the distribution of the blood in the body of a
four-footed animal has to undergo a complete
adjustment to serve the same purpose for an
erect animal such as man. The backbone
which in a four-footed horizontal animal
forms an arch between the fore and hind
limbs, in an upright one is not only altered as
regards its curvature, but also in the length
and the shape of its various segments. The
musculature of the backbone has to be revolu-
tionized. The head in a monkey, as in a
dog, is so fixed to the body that the base of the
skull continues the line of the backbone ;
in man the head is poised on the spine so that
the base of the skull is almost at a right angle
to it. Nay, the closer one studies the matter,
the magnitude of the structural transforma-
tion required by a change of posture becomes

ERECT POSTURE 73

more and more apparent. There is not a
bone, muscle, joint or organ in the whole
human body but must have undergone a
change during the evolution of our posture.
Our present task then is to see what evidence
can be produced as to how and when man
came by his posture. Such evidence does
not come to the man who sits in his study and
reads books; it is to be found only in the
jungles of the tropics, and in the rocks and
strata, where there are found fossil remains of
animals which lived in tropical forests when
the earth was much younger than it is now.
It was the writer's good fortune to spend
some time in a part of the Malay Peninsula
many years ago. The region was hot, moist,
malarious, and thickly covered with forest
and jungle, in which monkeys of several
kinds abounded. In the course of a morning's
walk many families or troops might be encoun-
tered. As they scurried off, springing noisily
from branch to branch, without ever coming
to the ground, it soon became apparent
that although each kind of monkey or ape
had its own peculiar mode of making its
way along branches, and springing from tree
to tree, the gibbon or small anthropoid, which
differed very little from other apes in size, was
altogether peculiar in its gait. While the
ordinary monkey ran along on all fours with
its body parallel to the branch, using its
hinder extremities as the chief means of

74. THE HUMAN BODY

gaining impetus for springing from tree to
tree, the gibbon moved deftly along the
larger branches on its legs, with body erect,
and with its long arms stretched above its
head to seize in passing the overhanging twigs
for support. When seeking to escape it used
its long and powerful arms as the chief means
of progression. It was marvellous to see
how it could swing itself from branch to
branch and from tree to tree, often bounding
thus across an interval of 40 or 50 feet. The
ordinary monkeys were horizontal in posture
of the body but the gibbon was upright.
Later, when investigating the anatomy of the
animals native to the jungle to ascertain
whether or not they suffered from the effects
of malaria, the writer had his attention arrested
by the remarkable mauner in which the gibbon
and ordinary monkey differed in structure of
body. In the gibbon the viscera of the abdo-
men were fixed and arranged much as in
man ; the muscles of the belly wall had the
disposition seen in man ; the thorax was
flattened from back to front ; the spinal
column had the chief features seen in man's
skeleton, with the exception that in the loins
the column was straight instead of being
curved forward as in the human body. As
regards the features just enumerated the
monkey resembled the dog rather than the
gibbon. There, then, is a most important fact
— Si certain stage in the evolution in the

ERECT POSTURE 75

upright posture has been attained in the
gibbon. The gibbon is an ape with a body
adapted for an upright posture, amidst
arboreal surroundings.

The reader may well ask, " What has the
upright posture in the gibbon to do with
man's posture ? " In answering that question
a number of considerations must be kept in
mind. The first and most important is the
fact that the gibbon occupies a position in the
animal scale between the great anthropoids —
the gorilla, chimpanzee or orang, and the
common monkeys of the New World and of the
Old. It stands between the higher and the
lower. Secondly, we know that the erect
posture was attained by gibbons at a very
remote period, for in the lower Miocene strata
of the earth a form of gibbon, not unlike the
present type, is known from its fossil remains.
It is very probable that a type of ape similar
to the gibbon was evolved at the beginning of
the Miocene period, or even before that period
began. That is certainly many millions of
years ago. We know nothing of the early
stages of the evolution of the upright posture
in the gibbon, but we can realize that it
implied a gradual and complete alteration in
its structure and in its method of locomotion.

In the great anthropoids we recognize the
same posture as in the gibbon. They are
adapted for an upright posture on the trees.
Men who have studied the attitude and gait

76 THE HUMAN BODY

of those animals in confinement have been
misled by watching them waddling across the
floor of their cage, using their long arms as
crutches. They are different animals when at
home in tropical forests. They all hold their
bodies approximately upright, but differ
materially in their methods of locomotion.
The orang, like the gibbon, has extremely
long arms, which it uses much more than its
legs, in swinging itself from branch to branch
and from tree to tree. In the chimpanzee
the arms, although longer than the lower
limbs, are employed to an almost equal extent
in locomotion. In the gorilla we see a
strengthening of the legs ; the foot has become
an organ for supporting the weight of the
body, and has lost some of the features which
make the typical anthropoid foot a grasping
organ. Even among the great anthropoids
we see a specialization, not in posture, but
in manner of locomotion.

If I have succeeded in carrying the readef
with me in my argument he will now realize
that the erect posture is a very old one,
evolved with the appearance of the gibbons.
In the great anthropoids we see a stage
which takes us appreciably nearer man ;
they have the erect posture and also man's
bulk of body. Man does not differ from
them in posture, but in his manner of pro-
gression. He differs from them in being
adapted for progression on the ground — an

ERECT POSTURE 77

adaptation which allowed him to escape
beyond the limits of forests and occupy the
whole world. The problem which confronts
lis is not how man came by his upright posture
— that was in existence at an early date —
but how and when did he come by his foot,
his leg and his thigh ? Apparently a long
time ago, for although we do not know the
foot of Pithecanthropus, the oldest fossil
man yet discovered, we may infer from his
thigh-bone, which is absolutely human in
character, that his foot was also like ours.
No human foot has ever been seen, either in
human foetus or in primitive native races,
in which the great toe was separated like
a thumb, as is the case in all anthropoids, yet
from appearances to be found in the human
foot itself, the evidence is overwhelming that
the great toe was once set like a thumb, and
that the human foot was at one stage of
evolution a grasping organ. The stages
leading from the anthropoid to the human
foot are unknown. The foot was evolved
before the brain, for in Pithecanthropus —
belonging to a very late Pliocene or very early
Pleistocene date — the brain is little more
than half the size of the modern human brain.
It is very likely that the human form of foot
and leg appeared when the great anthropoid
forms were evolved — probably in the long
Miocene period — which was three times as long
as the Pliocene period which succeeded it.

78 THE HUMAN BODY

It was evolved with the appearance of
ground-Hving anthropoids — one of which we
beheve stands in the ancestral line of man.

No doubt when we come to know the
treasures of " missing links " and of extinct
forms of animal life which are at present hid
in the more superficial strata of the earth we
shall be able to trace step by step the various
stages which culminated in mankind. As
regards his upright posture we know enough
to say that it is an old feature, one which
appeared with the evolution of the gibbons.
Indeed, the greatest blank in our knowledge
relates to the manner, and the time, in which
the posture of the gibbons was evolved ; yet
so close is the structural relationship between
the monkeys and the gibbons that there can
be no doubt that such a transformation was
effected. The next blank in our knowledge
relates to the appearance of the human foot,
leg, and thigh. There, again, the structural
resemblance between the anthropoid and
human foot can only be explained by sup-
posing they have been evolved from a common
form. Thus, in the body of man there are
certain features which are new, some not so
new, some old and others older still. His large
brain appears to be his latest acquisition ; his
foot, leg, and plantigrade gait is older, his size
of body older still, and his erect posture quite an
ancient character — one which probably dates
from the beginning of the Miocene period.

CHAPTER VI

THE TAIL AND CERTAIN OTHER VESTIGIAL
STRUCTURES

It is very possible that the reader may still
entertain a doubt as to the probability of
man having come by his upright posture and
plantigrade gait in the manner explained
in the last chapter. In this one I propose to
discuss with him some very peculiar features of
man's body which are concerned with posture,
and which afford additional evidence that the
human stock was not always adapted for the
erect posture. The first of these is the human
tail. It is not a matter one cares to lay
emphasis on, yet for the sake of truth it must
be admitted that man is the descendant of a
tailed primate. The tail is a direct prolonga-
tion of the backbone ; all those segments or
vertebrae which lie beyond the sacral verbe-
brag — the ones to which the hind limbs are
attached — are tail or caudal vertebras. In
man, these vertebrae, four or five in number
and vestigial in size and form, are buried
beneath the skin. In the human embryo up
to the sixth week, the tail projects on the

79

80 THE HUMAN BODY

surface of the body ; its projection is best
seen when the embryo is in the third and
fourth weeks of development. Even at birth
a depression in the skin marks the point at
which the tail sinks within the body. It is
not uncommon to find during dissection of
the human body vestigial muscles passing to
the coccyx, which represent the tail muscles
of lower animals. Well authenticated cases
are on record of children who have been born
with true tails. Such cases are rare, and the
tails are little better than soft string-like
appendages, but their structure, and the fact
that they form a continuation of the backbone,
leave no doubt as to their true nature.

Many years ago critics of Darwin often
twitted his supporters on the subject of
man's tail ; they regarded the theory of a
human tail as a joke. A tailless condition is
not confined to man ; in the anthropoids,
both great and small, the tail has disappeared
to even a greater degree than in man. In
some monkeys the tail has been reduced to a
short projecting stump, but only in man and
the anthropoids can the tail be said to be
completely hidden and reduced to the condi-
tion of a coccyx. When it is remembered
that it is only these higher primates which have
attained the erect or upright posture it will
be at once suspected that the disappearance
of the tail is a result of a change of posture.
There can be no doubt that this is the case. We

VESTIGIAL STRUCTURES 81

have seen that when a monkey is held upright
its viscera gravitate downwards and need sup-
port from below. The muscles which close
the hinder end of the body are the muscles
which depress the tail ; by depressing the tail
the monkey can support or shut in the contents
of the abdomen. In man, the great anthro-
poids, and in the gibbon we find the muscles
which depress the tail spread out as a muscular
hammock across the pelvis to support the
viscera. The exact function of the tail in
monkeys we do not know accurately ; in
South American forms it is used as an extra
hand ; in Old World monkeys it seems to serve
as a balancing-rod, for one notices those with
long tails now holding them aloft, at other times
trailing them behind, first on one side of the
branch they are walking on, then on the other.
With the evolution of the upright posture
the tail became useless as a balancing organ ;
the centre of the gravity of the body became
then quite altered. The muscles which de-
pressed the tail were needed for the support
of the abdominal organs, and hence the
tail became useless in the new economy
which was established and became buried or
coccygeal in form. The actual process which
leads to the disappearance of useless organs we
do not know fully, but we do know that they
vanish, usually as in the present case, leaving
some mark or trace behind. Thus the dis-
appearance of the tail did not take place when

82 THE HUMAN BODY

man as we know him now was being evolved ;
it was even suppressed before the great
anthropoids came on the scene. Amongst
all the animals now living, the gibbon is the
most primitive tailless form, and it was pro-
bably during its evolution from a monkey-
like form that the tail was lost. Seeing how
long the tail has ceased to be a functional
organ in the ancestry of man, it is a matter
of astonishment, not that it is rarely devel-
oped, but that it should reappear at all.

Occasionally men are born with the organs
within the abdomen fixed and arranged
exactly as they are in horizontally placed —
or, to use a better term — ^pronograde monkeys.
Surgeons are well aware of the occurrence
of such anomalies, for in these men the bowel
being loosely attached by its mesentery, is
apt to become twisted on itself, thus causing
obstruction. In the earlier stages of develop-
ment of the human embryo the bowel is
attached as in a pronograde monkey, but in
the later months the adaptations seen in
upright or orthograde primates take place.
The small bowel in pronograde animals is
attached by a mesentery or sheet of membrane,
shaped somewhat like a fan ; when the human
foetus enters the orthograde or upright stage
of development one side of the mesentery
becomes applied to the posterior wall of the
abdomen, and thus the bowel is more closely
bound down. It would be impossible to

VESTIGIAL STRUCTURES 83

explain the facts relating to the fixation of the
abdominal viscera unless we suppose that at
one stage of evolution, the ancestry of man
was pronograde in its posture.

Very little has been said as yet concerning
the effect of the upright or orthograde posture
on the organs within the chest — the heart
and lungs. It is quite evident, however,
that when a pronograde animal is held erect
not only do its abdominal viscera tend to
sink down, but so also do those within the
thorax. In the pronograde ape there is a
space between the heart and the diaphragm
which is filled or occupied by a process or lobe
(azygos lobe) of the base of the right lung.
In orthograde animals, such as man and the
anthropoids, the heart comes to rest on the
upper surface of the diaphragm and the
azygos lobe disappears. A rudiment of it
can always be seen, and occasionally it is of
some size, and projects inwards between the
heart and diaphragm occupying the same
position as in pronograde apes. We cannot
explain the presence of a vestige of the azygos
lobe unless we suppose that man had passed
through a pronograde stage.

There is a danger of becoming tedious were
I to press on the reader the technical evidence
to be found in man's body which indicates
a change in posture. Yet there is an advan-
tage in approaching the study of the human
body in the manner I have adopted, for

84. THE HUMAN BODY

certain functional peculiarities are brought
before us which otherwise would escape
observation. This is especially the case as
regards the shoulder region of our bodies ;
we are square-shouldered ; the military man
loves to emphasize this feature by wearing
epaulettes. Indeed, the fashionable tailor
frequently makes good any deficiency in his
customers' shoulders by the use of a little
padding. The shoulders of pronograde apes
are set quite differently to ours ; they are
pressed against the flattened sides of the
chest, the sharp, keel-like sternum along
the lower margin of the body projecting
downwards between and beneath them. The
muscles are so arranged as to advance and
retract the shoulders as the animal runs
along. With the assumption of the upright
posture in the gibbon, the shoulder is swung
round to the side of the body, and the thorax
becomes widened from side to side. The
shoulder thus assumes the same position as in
man, but owing to the fact that the arms are
used for suspending the body and for swinging
it from branch to branch, the arrangement
of muscles between the shoulder and body is
peculiar in the gibbon. It is quite clear
that when we stand up our shoulders would
tend to droop unless they were supported by
the muscles which fix them to the head, neck,
and spine. Hence there is a slight difference
in the arrangement of the shoulder muscles

VESTIGIAL STRUCTURES 85

of man, seeing that his arms are no longer used
for locomotion as they are in the gibbon and
great anthropoids. Now the question we
want to answer is the following : — Is there
any evidence in the musculature of the human
shoulder which indicates that man at any
stage of evolution used his arms as anthropoids
and as monkeys do ? There is. Occasionally
a muscle is found in man known as the lifter
of the clavicle or collar bone (levator clavi-
culas) which passes from the neck to the
shoulder. It is invariably present in prono-
grade monkeys, in which it advances the
shoulder in running ; it becomes modified in
its size and attachments in the orthograde
apes ; in man it has almost disappeared. We
cannot account for the occasional presence of
this muscle in man except on the theory of
a pronograde stage in man's evolution.

I might cite a number of vestigial muscles in
the human arm which are well developed in
apes. Medical students are aware of the
fibrous remnant of a muscle (the latissimo-
condyloideus) which is found in the posterior
wall of the armpit, uniting a large muscle
passing from the back (latissimus dorsi), and
another passing from the shoulder into the
arm (long head of the triceps). In apes this
muscle, which is a mere vestige in man, is a
source of strength in climlDing. Another
instance is seen in connexion with the biceps
muscle which bends the forearm on the upper

86 THE HUMAN BODY

arm. In gibbons this muscle is used for
bending the arm as the animals swing along
with an ease that a human gymnast might
well envy. It is therefore strong and is
provided with two extra parts or heads.
Now it is a curious fact that these extra heads
for the biceps not unfrequently appear in
man, indeed one of them, the inner, may be
seen in ten per cent, of bodies. It is possible
that man and the gibbon may have acquired
these extra heads independently, but this is
improbable when we take into account the
great number of characters they have in
common. The third instance I am going to
cite of a vestigial or rudimentary muscle in
the human arm is the one known as the
palmaris longus. In one person out of ten
it is quite absent, but the chances are in
favour of the reader being able to detect its
tendon on his own wrist. If he will look at
the front of the wrist, while holding his palm
and fingers in a stretched position he will
probably see and feel a small cord below the
skin passing from the forearm into the palm
exactly in the middle of the wrist. In the
arms of monkeys he would find this muscle
well developed and performing a very useful
function. It must be remembered that the
monkey uses its hand both as a hand and a
foot. The palmaris longus acts on the palm,
especially on the skin and pads of the palm,
which are rough with papillse to give firmness

VESTIGIAL STRUCTURES 87

of grasp on the trees. The foot-like action
disappears from the hand with the assumption
of the upright posture, and hence in the
anthropoid apes and in man, the palmaris
loses its function and becomes very small
or may be quite absent.

Beneath the calf of the leg there is an exact
counterpart of the palmaris longus. This
muscle, the plantaris longus, is also vestigial ;
it is often little more than a white tendinous
cord, having no muscular belly ; in five per
cent, of men it is altogether absent. The
anthropoids are similar to man in this respect ;
in the gorilla it has almost disappeared.
In all pronograde apes it is well developed,
and instead of ending on the heel as in man,
passes into the sole of the foot, where its
tendon spreads out to form a stout membrane
(the plantar fascia) under the skin of the sole.
As a monkey runs along on all fours, its heel
will be observed to be turned upwards off the
ground ; there is a supple joint — the mid-
tarsal joint — just in front of the ankle, which
allows the hinder part of the foot to be bent
easily upwards. A change in posture, such as
is seen in anthropoids, is accompanied by a
stiffening of the mid-tarsal joint ; the tarsal
part of the foot is enlarged to provide a more
firm support for the weight of the anthropoid's
upright body. The heel is prolonged back-
wards and the heel is not bent upwards as in
monkeys, but the whole sole is applied flatly

88 THE HUMAN BODY

to the branch as the anthropoid passes along
it in an erect or semi-erect posture. When
the heel is thus applied to the ground in con-
sequence of the orthograde posture it presses
against the tendon of the plantaris ; indeed,
the heel grows through the tendon, thus
cutting off the muscular part in the leg from
the tendinous part in the foot. This condition
is seen in the legs of man and of the anthro-
poids, and is proof that all of them have passed
through a pronograde stage.

Very probably the reader is aware that in
some people, especially those who are kept
standing or moving about for hours on a
stretch, such as postmen and policemen and
nurses, the arch of the foot is apt to break
down, producing the condition of fiat foot.
Only in man is the foot firmly arched ; it
must serve him as a firm lever as he steps
off one foot to take another stride. Now
when flat foot develops, the break down of
the arch occurs at the mid-tarsal joint — the
one which we saw was flexible in the four-
footed monkeys and which became firmer as
the erect posture was assumed. People with
flat foot do not dare to step off their toes
because the lever of the foot is destroyed
by a loosening or breaking-up of the mid-tarsal
joint. It would not be true to describe flat
foot as a relapse to a pronograde condition,
yet in bending at the mid-tarsal joint the
flat foot and the monkey's foot are alike

VESTIGIAL STRUCTURES 89

in that they both allow bending to take
place.

It has already been noted that man is apt
to emphasize those features of his body which
mark him off from lower animals and from
other races of mankind. The calf of the leg
is such a feature ; it is highly developed in
the white and yellow races — the European
and Mongolian. In no dark-skinned race
is the calf prominently developed, yet it is in
the negroid races we so often see individuals
who carry themselves gracefully. Indeed,
men who have well developed calves often
walk with a jerky step. Anthropoids, like
negroid races, have an ill-developed calf,
but before pronouncing whether such a feature
is Simian or not, it will be well to enquire into
its nature. The calf of the leg is made up of
two muscles — the gastrocnemius and soleus ;
they act on the heel. The only difference
between man and the anthropoid apes is,
that in the former the soleus muscle is larger
and has extended the area of its origin to the
tibia, while in the latter it is confined to the
fibula, but occasionally one sees a tibial origin
in the gorilla. There is another difference ;
while in man the muscle ends in a tendon — ■
the tendo Achillis- -some inches above the
heel, in the anthropoids the muscular fibres
almost reach the heel, the tendon being
short. The heel is the lever for the muscles
of the calf ; if it be long or set horizontally

90 THE HUMAN BODY

then a less amount of muscle is required to
lift the body on the toes ; if the heel is short,
and especially if it be set obliquely, as is the
case when the arch of the foot — ^the instep —
is high, then the heel forms a less powerful
lever, and a greater amount of muscle is
required to lift it. Now it is notorious that
the heel of the negro is long and as his foot
has not a high arch, it appears as if it projected
backwards to a marked degree. With such
a powerful lever the calf -muscles need not be
large ; they act easily and steadily and give
a graceful step. In Europeans the heel is
short, and it is bent downwards to form the
posterior pillar of the arch of the foot. It
forms a less powerful lever and hence the
need of greater calf-muscles. It will thus
be seen that the history of the calves of
our legs is wrapped up in the evolution of
the orthograde posture. The anthropoid's
leg is a step in advance of the leg of a prono-
grade ape ; man's leg is an equally great
advance on the anthropoid condition.

We have thus examined traces of a former
pronograde posture in many parts of man's
body — ^in the abdomen, thorax, neck, shoulder,
arm, hand, foot and leg ; we will bring this
chapter to a conclusion by citing one other
instance — this time taken from within the
body just above the region of the hip joint.
In that region of the human body there is
found the remains of a muscle named the

VESTIGIAL STRUCTURES 91

small psoas — in contradistinction to the great
one which bends the thigh. This small
muscle is often absent in man, and if present
it is small and mainly composed of tendinous
or fibrous tissue. It springs from the back-
bone in the region of the loins, and ends on
the brim of the pelvis, behind the outer wall
of the lower part of the abdomen. In anthro-
poids it is not much better developed than in
man, but in pronograde apes it is robust and
strong. The four-footed apes employ this
muscle to flex the pelvis on the spine, its
action being well seen as the animal bends its
body preparatory to a jump. With the
disappearance of this action in the upright
posture, the need of the small psoas muscle
disappears. Its persistence in a vestigial
condition in man and anthropoids shows that
they have passed through a pronograde stage.
Although the evolution of the human
method of progression was attended by a
profound alteration in the form and action
of every muscle and bone in the lower limbs,
yet this great transformation was produced
without the appearance of any really new
element. One new muscle — the peroneus
tertius — did appear, and the history of its
evolution throws an interesting side light on
the origin of new structures. It arises by
the outer fibres of the common extensor
muscle of the toes being separated. In all
the anthropoids the feet are so ai'ticulated at

92 THE HUMAN BODY

the ankle joints that the soles are directed
towards each other, and only the outer edge
of the foot conies to rest on the ground when
the animal tries to stand. The feet have a
tendency to assume a similar position in
children at birth. The advantage of a muscle,
such as the peroneus tertius, is apparent in
the human foot, for it tends to raise the outer
border of the foot, so that the sole is properly
applied to the ground. If we examine the
muscles which, rising from the front of the leg,
cross the ankle joint to end on the back of the
foot on the toes in fifty men, we shall find
every stage in the evolution of this muscle.
In one man at least it will be undeveloped ;
in two or perhaps three it will be represented
by a part of the tendon of the extensor muscle
of the little toe, which in place of ending
entirely on the toe, sends a part to end on
the metatarsal bone of the little toe. In
only forty of the fifty men will the peroneus
tertius he found quite isolated from the parent
muscle — ^the extensor communis digitorum,
and to have a distinct origin from the fibula
in the leg, and a separate insertion to the base
of the fifth metatarsal bone in the foot. In a
series of fifty specimens every stage in the
isolation of this new muscle will be seen.
It has never been found in any anthropoid,
and is more often absent or undeveloped in
African than in European races.

It can be very well understood that the

VESTIGIAL STRUCTURES 93

extension of the human thigh, so that it is
brought into Hne with the trunk, must lead to a
considerable alteration in the structures of the
groin. There can be no doubt that the exten-
sion of the thigh has weakened the human groin,
and made man more liable to suffer from
ruptures or hernias than any other animal.
The escape of the contents of the abdomen —
which constitutes a hernia — is liable to occur
at two points : (1) at the point where the
testicles perforate at the groin — just before
birth ; (2) by another passage which is
formed at the inner side of the great vessels
of the thigh. The second passage is only
found in man, and is due to the manner in
which the human thigh is attached to the
pelvis. The first opening is found in nearly
all mammals, but in man — owing to the width
of the thigh and groin — the passage made by
the testicle is not so well protected by suitable
closing or sphincter muscles as in other
mammals. Thus man's upright posture has
been obtained at a sacrifice ; the modifica-
tion of the groin has weakened the abdominal
wall at the root of the thigh and made him
liable to a malady which cripples the strength
of many men. The ligament which crosses
the groin— -known as Poupart's ligament —
is peculiar to man, but the complex of struc-
tures out of which it has been evolved is
* very apparent in the groins of the anthropoid
apes.

CHAPTER VII

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE HUMAN BODY

The reader will observe that I am not follow-
ing the orderly methods of those who write
text-books of anatomy ; there is no attempt
here to describe one part of the body after
another in regular sequence. My aim is
rather to bring forward the general opinions
held by those who have made a special study
of the human body. In the four chapters
which precede this one I have touched on
the evidence which has led us to regard man
as having arisen in a long past period in com-
mon with the animals to which he is allied
in structure. If such is his origin, then we
ought to find further evidence of it during the
various stages he passes through before
birth. Indeed, it was at one time expected
that when we came to know all the changes
which the human body passes through from
conception to birth, we should have a complete
picture of the past history of mankind. It
was expected that the embryo would recapitu-
late the features of its ancestors from the
lowest to the highest forms in the animal

94

DEVELOPMENT OF THE BODY 95

kingdom. Now that the appearances of the
embryo at all ages are known, the general
feeling is one of disappointment ; the human
embryo at no stage is anthropoid in its
appearance. The truth is, we expected too
much ; we failed to realize that higher animals
are adapted for two lives — one a peculiar
vegetative existence 's\4thin the womb, and
the second a conscious life which commences
with birth. The most marvellous adaptations
to be seen in our bodies are those which
relate to the phase before birth. At a very
early stage of development we see the embryo
become enveloped within a double-coated
hull or membrane, developed as an outgrowth
from its own body. Within these membranes
the embryo develops, but there never was,
there could not be, an individual or ancestor
which passed its whole life thus enclosed within
an envelope of foetal membranes. The inner
of these, membranes — the amnion — is filled
with clear fluid within which the embryo
floats, evenly supported on all sides and pro-
tected from irregular pressures which would
distort its delicate growing tissues. The
outer membrane — the chorion — gives rise to
the placenta which fixes itself to the mother's
womb and draws from it nourishment and
oxygen for the supply of the embryo, which as
is grows and takes on a definite form comes
to have the name of foetus applied to it. The
embryo develops its own bk>od and its own

96 THE HUMAN BODY

vessels ; its circulation at all times is distinct
from that of the mother; there is no inter-
mingling of maternal and foetal blood. The
foetus is a parasite ; beginnings of a digestive
and of a respiratory system appear in it, but
they do no work ; these functions are per-
formed by the placenta. All the early stages
of development of the embryo are marked by
the efforts to produce the structures which
are necessary for foetal life. The provision of
such structures marks the true nature of the
embryo. The conditions under which the
embryo and foetus live, grow, and draw their
nourishment, are very different from those
which surround low forms of animal life.
We cannot expect the embryo to reproduce
for us the early ancestral stages of life ; these
have been much modified and some of them
replaced to suit the phase of existence within
the womb.

Yet in a broad way we see various stages
indicated during the building up of our bodies.
The fertilized egg or ovum, which forms the
commencing stage for each one of us, represents
in its structure the lowest forms of animal life
— the protozoa. The ovum, like a protozoon,
is a cell with a nucleus — so small that seven
hundred of them could be laid side by side on
a line scarcely an inch in length. The ovum
divides, each cell thus formed redivides, the
cells arranging themselves so as to form a
minute plate-like structure — ^the embryo. It

DEVELOPMENT OF THE BODY 97

is impossible to explain certain appearances
of the embryo, the streak seen along it, and
an opening — the blastopore or primitive
mouth — which perforates the embryonic plate,
unless we suppose that we had in our ancestry
a form built on the same type as the hydra
made familiar to us in our text-books on
biology. The blastopore is regarded as repre-
senting the mouth of a hydra-like animal ;
it is soon closed in the human embryo, and
by the third week there is a new mouth formed
at the opposite end of the embryonic body,
which becomes the permanent one. The
early formation of the foetal membranes,
which enclose the embryo, and the accumula-
tion of yolk within the embryo — an early
provision for nourishment — mask and disturb
the hydra-like appearance of the embryo.
In the next stage we see the rudiments of the
body cavity being formed — the pleural and
peritoneal cavities which enclose the viscera of
the thorax and abdomen. During the develop-
ment of worms and many other invertebrates,
we see body cavities being produced in essen-
tially the same manner as in us, and we there-
fore suppose that our ancestry and theirs must
have passed through a common stage. At the
end of the second week we see transverse lines
appear one after another on the upper or dorsal
surface of the embryonic plate, which mark out
the embryonic body into a series of segments,
very similar in appearance. These body

G

98 THE HUMAN BODY

segments remain particularly distinct in worms,
insects and crustaceans ; they can also be seen
in all vertebrate animals, when the skin is
removed. In fishes, the segmental arrangement
of the muscles, as well as of the vertebrae and
ribs, is especially distinct. In our bodies the
vertebrae and ribs still mark the primitive seg-
ments, and the intercostal muscles and some of
those which act on the spine still preserve the
original segmented condition. By the end of
the third week, when the human embryo is
about one-sixth of an inch in length, the pro-
cess of segmentation is complete. In a broad
way, in spite of special developmental adapta-
tions, the human embryo does recapitulate
some early stages of evolution.

It is during the third week that there
appears on the neck of the embryo one of the
most remarkable manifestations of a past
stage of existence. On each side four grooves
or depressions are formed. There can be no
doubt that these represent the gill slits of
fishes. We have every reason to suppose that
the arches on the front and sides of the neck of
the embryo represent the arches which carry
gills, for into each one of them the aorta from
the heart sends a branch, in the same manner
as may be seen in the gill arches of fishes.
No gills are actually developed because the
placenta serves their purpose — ^that of respira-
tion. Indeed, the clefts never open, but part
of the first cleft remains, and forms the ear

DEVELOPMENT OF THE BODY 99

passage. Our ears are developed round the
upper part of the first cleft. The lower jaw
is developed in the first arch ; the hyoid bone,
on which the base of the tongue is set, is
formed within the second and third arches.
The cartilages of the larynx — the thyroid
and cricoid, and also the cartilaginous rings
of the trachea and bronchi, are formed within
the fourth and fifth arches. It is passing
strange that we can recognize the same
skeletal parts in our throats as we can see in
the gill region of fishes. By the sixth week
all outward appearance of gill slits is lost ;
the manner in which the hinder ones disappear
is instructive. In certain fishes the gills are
covered by a lid or operculum, which grows
back over them from the second arch, thus
enclosing a gill chamber. In the human
embryo a similar process is seen to occur.
The third and fourth clefts are covered by a
fold which grows backwards over them from
the substances of the second arch, and as it
grows back the clefts and gill chamber are
obliterated. This is not always the case,
however. The surgeon is frequently consulted
by patients who complain of a discharge
which escapes from a small opening situated
on the one or the other side of the neck just
above the inner end of the collar-bone. When
a probe is passed within the opening it
passes upwards in the direction of the larynx
for perhaps an inch or more. Such a fistula or

100 THE HUMAN BODY

opening represents the unclosed gill chamber.
Occasionally other remains of gill clefts are
found as tags of skin or as auricular append-
ages on the upper part of the side or front of
the neck. In some breeds of goats such
appendages occur constantly.

Some of the common malformations of the
body appear to reproduce a condition which is
only seen in fishes. The deformity known as
" hare-lip " is a case in point. The name,
however, is a misnomer, for the cleft in the
upper lip of the hare is situated below the
septum of the nose and separates the lip into'
a right and left half. The cleft, however,
which is apt to appear in the human upper
lip occurs to the right or to the left of the
middle line ; the cleft may be double, so that
the lip is divided into a middle part attached
to the septum of the nose and two larger
lateral parts continuous with the cheeks.
The explanation is found in the manner in
which the upper lip is formed in the foetus ;
it is produced by the fusion of three parts.
If these fail to unite, the condition of double
hare lip is produced, leaving a cleft or groove
between the nostrils and the mouth. Now
the only adult vertebrate animals in which
such a condition is seen to persist is the group
of fishes to which the sharks and rays belong.
In " hare-lip," then, we appear to see the
reproduction of a condition known to occur
only in gill-breathing vertebrates.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE BODY 101

Cleft palate is often combined with hare
lip, but it represents an arrest at a later stage
of evolution. A complete palate, such as is
seen in man, occurs only in mammals. The
palate has been evolved in connexion with
mastication ; it separates the respiratory
passage of the nose from the mouth, so that
the animal, as it masticates a mouthful of
food, may continue to breathe freely. While
the parts of the upper lip are united before the
end of the second month of development, the
right and left outgrowths which meet along
the roof of the mouth and form the palate are
not completely joined until the end of the
third month. In cases of cleft palate the
process of fusion does not take place. Another
use of the palate is seen at birth. If it is
cleft, the child has a difficulty in sucking
and swallowing, for the milk regurgitates
through the nose. In amphibia, reptiles
and birds, the three parts representing the
upper lip unite, but an open cleft remains
between the mouth and the nose. In a
child suffering from cleft palate we see
reproduced a reptilian condition, and have
at the same time an illustration of the uses of
the palate.

Organs are often arrested in their develop-
ment on the point of passing from one stage
to another. Children are occasionally born
with malformed hearts, which illustrate the
truth of this statement. In gill-breathing

102 THE HUMAN BODY

animals, the chief function of the heart is to
pump the blood to the gills ; after leaving the
gills the oxygenated blood enters the arteries
and is circulated to the tissues of the body.
When gills are replaced by lungs, the heart
becomes changed in form and in function.
Its main duty is then to pump blood to the
body, only a part of the heart — the right
ventricle — being set aside to supply blood
to the lungs. Now, at the time when the gill
clefts appear in the neck of the human embryo,
the heart is like that of a fish. It is composed
of four chambers, the one leading to the
other. The first of these is named the sinus
venosus ; it receives the blood from the body
and passes it on to the next chamber, the
auricle. It in turn sends the blood to the
chief chamber — the ventricle. There is a
fourth chamber — the bulbus cordis — situated
between the ventricle and the aorta. The
aorta carries the blood to the gill arches.
When the gill arches begin to disappear in
the human embryo and the rudiments of the
lungs are formed, we see the heart, still beating,
for it starts to beat very early, begin to under-
go a series of changes. The first chamber —
the sinus — becomes incorporated in the right
side of the auricle, while the fourth chamber,
or bulbus, sinks within and forms part of the
ventricle. While the sinus and bulbus are
being included, developmental changes are
seen to be taking place in the auricle and

DEVELOPMENT OF THE BODY 103

ventricle, which lead to a division of each
of these into right and left cavities. The
right chambers receive the venous blood and
pass it onwards to the lungs and placenta,
while the left receive the blood from the
lungs and placenta and supply it to the
body. The commonest malformation of the
human heart is due to an arrest of develop-
ment during the passage from the gill breath-
ing to the lung breathing stage. In the
malformed hearts of children one usually
finds that the fourth chamber, or bulbus, has
been incompletely incorporated in the right
ventricle, and that it is so small that the blood
can scarcely pass into the pulmonary artery
and thus reach the lungs. Indeed, such chil-
dren would die from suffocation at birth were
it not that the septum between the ventricles
is incomplete, so that the impure blood can
pass from the right ventricle to the left, and
be pumped with the pure blood to the body.
Some of it, by an indirect channel, reaches
the lungs, where it is oxygenated, and thus
the child is prevented from dying of asphyxia.
In some cases, there is only a common ventricle
as in the fishes and amphibia, the septum, or
partition which separates the original ventricle
into right and left chambers, having failed to
form. The rapid transformation of the heart of
the embryo from a simple pump as in fishes into
the double-chambered heart of the mammal is
very wonderful, and yet not more so than the

104 THE HUMAN BODY

transformation which produces a butterfly
from a caterpillar.

We see a rigid economy being practised in
the human embryo, as the branchial or gill
stage is replaced by a pulmonary system.
There are altogether six pairs of gill arches ;
into each of these the aorta sends a vessel, or
stem. When the branchial arches disappear,
the aortic branches within some of them are
utilized for other purposes. Those in the
third pair of arches form part of the two
internal carotid arteries; the vessel of the
fourth arch on the left side forms the bend of
the aorta, while the sixth one of the left side
has a most remarkable history (see Fig. 2).
Part of it becomes the stem of the pulmonary
artery — ^the great vessel to the lungs — while
the other part remains open only during foetal
life. This latter part, which is known as the
ductus arteriosus, allows the blood to pass from
the pulmonary artery to the aorta (Fig. 2). The
need for such a channel in the foetus will be very
apparent to the reader, when he remembers
that the lungs come into use only at birth.
Before then the placenta serves the purposes
of respiration. The presence of a communica-
tion between the pulmonary artery and aorta
allows the right ventricle to pump the impure
blood into the aorta and thus to the placenta,
instead of to the lungs. At birth the ductus
begins to close and is soon occluded, so that
the blood can no longer enter the aorta but

DEVELOPMENT OF THE BODY 105

'to Brain
^4^ Arch

'Z'XArch
>sa Arch

W^Arch

5{* Arch
ett Arch

to Right Lung
(tJMT AuhlCLB

ttl9KT WtHTmCLS.

to Braifl

EXTERNAi,

Qarotid :

ARTEPy \

\

/NTERNAU
CAROTIQ /

Aaai %r AOHtTK

to Lett Arm

Ductus artekiowb
to ten Lung

Left AudklE!

Aorta
Lerr vtSTRtcit,

Arteries to
placenta

"FlQ. 2. — Showing how the great arteries of the thorax
and neck are derived from the arteries of the gill-
arches.

106 THE HUMAN BODY

must pass to the lungs (Fig. 2). We see, then, a
part of the artery of a gill arch being employed
to secure a placental respiration in the foetus,
and then suddenly closed up to bring about
a pulmonary respiration in the newly born
child.

The developmental changes which have just
been described relate to remote stages in the
evolution of the human body ; those now to be
described seem to belong to a later stage.
When the hinder end of the body of a human
foetus is examined during the second month of
development, it is seen that the bowel, the
genital and urinary ducts end in a common
chamber, or cloaca. By the end of the third
month certain changes have occurred, which
separate the opening of the bowel from the
uro-genital passage. Occasionally children
are born in which that separation has failed
to occur, so that there is present only the
primitive passage. When this condition is
contrasted with the arrangement of parts
seen in vertebrate animals, we find that it is
similar to the condition present in fishes,
amphibia, reptiles, birds and in the very
lowest mammals in which there is only one
passage — ^the cloaca. In all the higher mam-
mals there are two passages, and we infer that
the division of the posterior vent must have
occurred when the marsupial stock branched
off from the ancestral line of the higher mam-
mals and therefore at a date long prior to the

DEVELOPMENT OF THE BODY 107

appearance of th-e human stock. In the subjects
of the unfortunate malformation just described,
we see a reversion to a stage of evolution much
less remote than those maldevelopments con-
nected with the imperfect heart and branchial
arches.

The instances we have so far cited from
the development of the human body indicate
in only a general way certain evolutionary
phases which are long past. We are now
to see if there are any malformations which
indicate for us one of the later phases of human
evolution — especially such a stage as we
may presume to have existed when the human
and anthropoid stocks diverged. There are
two parts of the body which may be expected
to supply us with evidence. These are the
essentially human structures — the foot and
the brain. So far as concerns the foot, it may
be said definitely that a child has never
been seen with an anthropoid foot. Yet
there is one form of congenital malformation
of the foot — congenital club foot — which has
certain resemblances to the ape's foot. It
is like the ape's, in that the feet are turned
inwards, so that the soles face each other ;
when the child walks it places the outer border
of the foot on the ground as the ape does. But
the great toe differs from that of the ape ;
it is not set on the sole as the thumb is in the
hand. Yet in the sole of the foot of even the
normal child there may be seen the same

108 THE HUMAN BODY

fold which is present in the ape's foot between
the root or ball of the great toe and the rest
of the sole. In Eastern races the great toe
can be used for grasping objects.

The brain may be arrested in its develop-
ment. The best examples are to be found in
small-headed or microcephalic idiots. There
are many cases on record, but the one I propose
to bring before the reader is the brain of " Joe,"
which was investigated by the late Professor
Cunningham — one of the best anatomists of
our time. Joe's brain weight was 560 grammes,
900 less than that of a normal man and only
slightly heavier than that of a gorilla. He
was 5 ft. 9 in. high and died at the age of
sixty. His head was very small, especially
in comparison with his face, which was of
normal proportions. He spent the latter part
of his life in the county asylum of Lancashire,
where he tended the sheep, keeping them
within " prescribed limits " with great vigil-
ance for days together. He had command of
a considerable number of words and could
frame sentences. The expression of his face
" was distinctly human," and although he
had a vacant imbecile look, his face clearly
reflected every emotion in a perfectly human
fashion. He knew a sixpence from a f ourpenny
bit ; he could count his fingers, but did not
know much about the divisions of time ;
he was easily puzzled, and did not know how
many years there were in a week*

DEVELOPMENT OF THE BODY 109

When " Joe " died, his brain was found to
be not only small in size, but to have its
fissures and convolutions arranged in a very-
simple manner. Professor Cunningham was
an extremely judicious and cautious observer.
The features of " Joe's " brain could not be
explained by supposing it had simply been
arrested at a certain stage of development,
for although the fissures and convolutions had
resemblance to the condition seen in the foetal
brain in the seventh month, yet there were
other additional and modifying features which
he was inclined to regard as the reproduction
— an imperfect reproduction perhaps — of a
stage in the evolution of the human brain.
Certain appearances were really anthropoid in
nature, yet in complexity of pattern " Joe's "
brain was simpler than that of a chimpanzee.
The posterior or occipital part of the cerebrum
was particularly small ; we know that it is
just this part which forms a relatively large
part of the brain of the primates. The fissure
of Sylvius was placed obliquely, and that area
of the brain — the Island of Reil — which is
submerged and hid in the fissure in the
normal human brain, was exposed and its
front part was continuous with the inferior
frontal convolution as in anthropoids. The
parts of the brain connected with speech were
as small as in the anthropoid ape. It seems
possible then that such a brain as that of
" Joe " does represent, in a disturbed and

110 THE HUMAN BODY

somewhat distorted manner, an actual stage
in the evolution of the human brain.

The most remarkable instance of the close
relationship between the anthropoids and man
is to be found in their earliest stages of develop-
ment. It is only within the last fifteen years
that we have got to know these stages. The
late Professor Emil Selenka spent his fortune
and his leisure in procuring and in investigat-
ing the embryos of anthropoid apes, and
several observers, both at home and abroad,
have published exact accounts of human
embryos under fourteen days old during quite
recent years. Not only is the uterus of the
anthropoid and of mankind similar in form,
but their embryos become implanted in an
exactly similar manner, a manner which is
only known to occur in them.

In mammals generally the embryo is dis-
tinctly in process of formation before the
double membranes grow up and envelop it
(p. 95) ; in man and anthropoids the formation
of the embryo remains in abeyance until the
membranes are developed. Once these are
completed, the small knob of cells which
represents the embryo begins to take on
a definite shape. The reader will have ob-
served that I have often employed posture
to explain the many points of similarity
in the structure of anthropoid and man,
and will at last feel certain that in this case
no such explanation can be offered. On the

DEVELOPMENT OF THE BODY 111

contrary, it is my opinion that, by some mech-
anism which we do not know at present, the
early development of the embryo has been
changedby the posture of its parent. The uterus
is situated in the lowest part of the abdomen.
In upright primates it is exposed to a special
degree of pressure, not only from the weight
of the superincumbent viscera, but also from
the compressing action of the musculature of
the abdominal wall w^hich comes into action
in balancing and in all great muscular exertion.
Whether this explanation w^ill stand the test
of time or not, the fact remains that the
resemblance which we see between man and
the anthropoids in the adult stage is already
present in the very earliest stages of develop-
m.ent.

It will be now apparent to the reader why
the various stages in the ancestry of man are
so dimly represented during the development
of the human body. It is because all the
processes of development are modified to
adapt the embryo and foetus to an intra-
uterine and parasitic life. We cannot, how-
ever, explain the origin of the human
body from a single cell, the appearance
of gill arches, the formation of a cloaca and
the occurrence of other developmental pro-
cesses, unless we suppose man to have been
evolved from the very lowest forms of animal
life. We see traces of various stages of his
evolution. Many of his most primitive

112 THE HUMAN BODY

embryological structures he shares with other
vertebrates. These have not been mentioned.
For example, we see during his development
three sets of renal organs appear, the one
succeeding the other. There is first the
pronephros or head kidney which persists as a
small appendage of the testicle of man and of
the Fallopian tube (oviduct) of woman. Then
a second kidney — the mesonephros or Wolffian
body appears. This renal organ forms part
of the seminiferous duct system in man and a
vestigial organ in the broad ligament of the
uterus in women. It is not unfrequently the
seat of disease in women. Then the third or
final renal organ — ^the kidney — appears. In
having a triple succession of renal organs man
is like other mammals.

CHAPTER VIII

HUMAN MONSTERS AND MALFORMATION

In several of the preceding chapters we have
been content to sit still and discuss various
aspects of the human body. The time seems
to have arrived when we should again see and
examine the objects which are to be the subject
of consideration. We propose then to revisit
the Hunterian Museum where we may critic-
ally examine the most complete collection
which has ever been brought together to
illustrate the various monstrous forms which
the human and also the animal body occasion-
ally assume. Before actually surveying the
gallery of the museum in which the terato-
logical collection — so this series is named — is
arranged it will be to our advantage to see first
the specimens which illustrate the formation
of normal children. Two preparations show
us that as many as five children may be pro-
duced at one birth — all of which are small but
normal in shape. Triplets are not uncommon ;
in every 7000 announcements of birth one
may expect to hear of a case of triplets. Twins
are common ; in Ireland a twin birth has a
H 113

114 THE HUMAN BODY

frequency of one in seventy-two, in England
about one in seventy-five, and in France about
one in a hundred. In man, as in all the
higher primates, one at a birth is the rule.
Indeed I cannot remember any case of twins
being born to either monkeys or anthropoids.
We may regard the production of twins in
the higher primates as an abnormality. We
shall see presently that nearly all human
monsters are the result of an imperfect
production of twins.

On the adjoining shelves we have an
opportunity of verifying the fact that there are
two kinds of twins. In one form we see that
each foetus is wrapped in its own membranes ;
each has its own umbilical cord which conveys
the blood to and from the placenta ; the two
placentas may be partly or completely fused.
In the other kind the two foetuses are enclosed
together within the same envelope of mem-
branes ; each has a cord but they end on the
same placenta. These two varieties of twins
we believe arise quite differently ; in the first
kind there were two ova, both of which were
fertilized; in the second there was but one
ovum, which, at an early stage of development,
divided into two and thus gave rise to two
embryos. In the first kind the twins may be
of opposite sex and with no greater resemb-
lance to each other than a brother has to a
sister, but in the second kind they are " iden-
tical twins " both being of the same sex and

MONSTERS AND MALFORMATION 115

so alike that even the nurse finds a difficulty
in telling one from the other.

It is in the production of identical twins
that monsters arise. A fowl's egg which has
been prepared to show the embryo of a chick
at the end of the twenty-fourth hour of incuba-
tion helps us to understand the process. The
chick embryo forms a small plate, spread out
on the yolk. With a magnifying glass it
can be seen that the posterior end of this
particular embryo has undergone a process
of division and that while the head end shows
the rudiment of but one chick, the hind end
possesses the basis for two. Another specimen
shows a subdivision or duplication of both
the front and hind end of the embryo, a
condition which would result in twin chicks
joined together by their bodies. We are now
in a position to understand the various forms
of human monsters shown in the teratological
collection.

The specimens in the first case of the terato-
logical gallery need not detain us, yet in a way
they are very interesting. They show to us
the inward parts of individuals in whom the
viscera have been transposed. The apex of the
heart is directed towards the right side, and
its beat, instead of being felt during life in the
fifth intercostal space of the left side of the
chest, is palpable in the corresponding space
of the right side. The arch of the aorta, instead
of bending to the left turns to the right.

116 THE HUMAN BODY

The caecum and appendix occupy the left
side of the lower abdominal space in place of
the right. In short we see the viscera reversed
as in a mirror. Such a condition is not com-
mon although many cases have been placed
on record, but no satisfactory explanation
has been given of how the transposition has
been produced embryologically.

The next series of specimens shows us pro-
ducts of human birth which none but an
expert would recognize as children. They
seem shapeless packages wrapped in wrinkled
human skin ; no head, merely a trunk with
projecting parts which simulate limbs. Some
are cut open to show that within them there
are a backbone, a stomach, liver and bowel,
but there is no brain and the heart does not
seem capable of acting as a pump. We have
come to know that all of these " acardiac "
or " parasitic " foetuses are never born alone ;
they are the twin of a normal child. The
developmental separation of the twins was
almost complete ; the only junction which
persisted was a union between their vessels
at the placenta. One of the twins became
a parasite on the other ; the weaker twin,
instead of maintaining its own circulation,
came to trust to the heart of the larger or
" host " foetus for a blood-supply, with the
result that its own heart became passive and
life was maintained by the blood supplied to
it from the host or stronger foetus. The

MONSTERS AND MALFORMATION 117

parasitic foetus cannot survive birth, for the
moment the cord of the normal twin is tied
its supply of blood is cut off and it dies. The
shapeless masses of humanity show us the
form and organization our bodies would assume
were we to become purely parasitic or passive
in our manner of life.

The monsters included in the next series
are manifestly the result of imperfect separa-
tion of identical twins. In some the body
is single down to the navel, but is double
from that point downwards ; in other cases
it is the upper part which is double — two
heads and four arms — while the lower parts
are those of a normal individual. In others
the separation is almost complete, the bodies
being united at one point only. In some
monsters, as in the case of the Siamese
twins, only the parts between the breast-
bone and the navel are united. The united
twins may grow up and one may die while
the other lives. In such cases the surgeon has
attempted to preserve the surviving individual
by severing the bond between them, but in
most instances wdth very little success. In his
well-known work on the Pathology of the
Foetus Dr. J. W. Ballantyne gives an account
of a remarkable case which occurred in Scot-
land in the reign of James IV. Two boys
were born so united that they were as one
individual from the waist downwards, but
in their upper parts formed two individuals

118 THE HUMAN BODY

joined or fastened to each other back to back.
These " Scottish Brothers " were excellent
musicians and linguists and lived to the age
of twenty-eight, when one of them died. " For
which many required of the other to be
merry. He answered — ' How can I be merry,
that have my true marrow as dead as a
carrion on my back, which was wont to sing
and play with me ? Therefore I pray Almighty
God to deliver me out of this present life ' "
— a prayer we may be sure that was soon
granted. In a historical case which dates back
to the twelfth century a pair of twin sisters,
known as the " Biddenden Maids," were
born in Kent, and were found to be joined from
the waist downwards but fastened together
side by side. Among the specimens before
us there are monsters similar in form to the
" Scottish Brothers " and " Biddenden Maids,"
and many others which illustrate various
modes of union. Such united twins are usually
placed side by side or face to face. The union
however may be head to head or the opposite
ends of the body may be joined. All degrees
of union, from a slight bond to an almost
complete fusion of the two individuals, may be
seen. There is one peculiar form in which
the heads are fused face to face. In such cases
there appear to be two faces, but when they
are minutely examined it is seen that these
faces are compound, the right half belonging
to one head, while the left half belongs to

MONSTERS AND IMALFORiMATION 119

another. Yet so similar are the halves and
so accurately are they joined that they appear
to form the symmetrical face of one individual,
while as a matter of fact they are the united
halves of two individuals.

In the united or monstrous twins just
described each individual is of equal size
and no mistake can be made about their
condition, but we now reach a series which is
very puzzling in composition, and not easily
interpreted, because one of the individuals is
dwarfed so that it forms a mere appendage
upon a fully grown individual. The human
freaks which accompany the travelling show-
man are usually of this variety. The model
of a famous Chinaman is shown in the collec-
tion we are at present surveying. Attached
to the front of his body immediately below
the breast-bone is a curious structure in which
may be recognized a trunk, two lower extremi-
ties and two dangling processes which appar-
ently represent arms, but where the head
should be there is only an indistinct scar. If
we suppose one of the Siamese twins to have
been arrested in growth at an early stage of
foetal life and become dependent on the other
for its blood supply it would have assumed
the form of such an appendage as we see on
the Chinaman. A year or two ago the writer
saw a native of India with a similar malforma-
tion. The limbs of the parasitic twin were
destitute of movement and of sensation.

120 THE HUMAN BODY

Another of the commoner forms of monster
is that in which the posterior end of the
embryo has been divided, each division of the
hinder end of the body being provided with
a pair of lower extremities. In many of these
cases only one of the two divisions continues
to grow, the other being arrested, so that in
the adult one may see an extra pair of lower
extremities of small size attached to the seat
of the normal body or only one of these extra
limbs may grow. In such a case the individual
may appear to have three legs. In those cases
of division of the hind end of the body the
sexual parts and anus may be double.

In the case of the Chinaman just described,
the head of the atrophic twin had not been
developed, but in the specimen which repre-
sents the head of the " Bengalee child " we
see an opposite condition produced ; a head
has developed, with no body attached to it.
In this celebrated case the child lived for
several years ; the additional head was
upturned with its crown imbedded in that of
the living child. The eyes of the additional
head could move. An adjoining specimen
shows the true nature of the additional head
of the Bengalee child. This specimen shows
two twins normally formed except that the
heads are joined together crown to crown.
One can understand that if the circulation
were to be cut off from one of the foetuses,
its head might still be supplied from the vessels

MONSTERS AND MALFORMATION 121

of the head of the survivor and thus continue to
grow while the rest of the body atrophied and
disappeared. We see from these experiments
which nature has made, and we know now
that they are made by the normal condition
of development being altered, that the human
body during its embryonic and foetal stages
is very plastic and capable of taking on many
forms. Monster chicks can be produced by
hatching eggs at too high a temperature.
If the ova of the sea urchin or of the salmon
are hatched in water containing certain
salts in solution, many monstrous forms are
produced. Medical men have been unable to
find evidence to support the widely spread
popular tradition that such monsters may be
the result of mental shocks or impressions
received by the mother during pregnancy. We
do not see how such impressions could be
conveyed to a foetus in which all the parts are
already formed. On the other hand we can
see that fever or altered conditions of the
mother's blood or uterus might disturb the
normal condition of development, and thus
produce monsters. Malformations are very
apt to occur in certain families, especially those
which are regarded as neurotic.

We are now in a position to consider two
specimens which made a sensation when first
reported, nearly a century ago. They are
very similar, so that only one of them need be
described. We select the specimen w^hich is

122 THE HUMAN BODY

part of a lad who died at the age of sixteen
from a tumour which was situated within the
upper part of the abdomen. Lying within a
cavity in the tumour was found the body of a
child very similar in shape and size to the
one which we saw attached to the epigastric
region of the Chinaman. There was a back-
bone, abdomen, arms and legs, but no head.
Here we are apparently dealing with a twin,
but one which at an early stage of develop-
ment became included within the abdomen of
the larger or host twin. The " included "
twin was hampered in its growth by its peculiar
position, and as we have seen, brought about
the death of his twin brother.

Another series of specimens appears to
illustrate a condition which is allied to the one
just described but in reality is very different.
They are hollow tumours or cysts which have
been excised by the surgeon and may occur in
almost any part of the body, but are found
most frequently in the reproductive glands.
The interior of the cavity seems to be lined
with skin, hence they are named " dermoid "
tumours or cysts. They often contain tufts
or even masses of hair, and it is quite common
to find bony plates on their interior to which
teeth of various shapes are fixed. It is not
easy to explain the occurrence of such peculiar
cysts, but it is possible that they arise from a
genital cell — one which under normal circum-
stances would give rise to ova or spermatozoa.

MONSTERS AND IMALFORMATION 123

It is now known that the ova of invertebrate
animals — such as that of the sea-urchin — •
may be stimulated to divide and even form
an embryo by the application of a particular
chemical solution. It is just possible that
dermoid cysts may arise from genital cells
which have been situated in abnormal sur-
roundings and subject to irregular stimuli.

It has been shown by various embryologists
that the cells set aside for reproduction of
another generation are separated from the
cells which form the embryo at an early stage
of development, and that some of them may
never reach the testicle or ovary, but become
stranded in the body tissues. From such stray
cells it is supposed that dermoids may arise,
but such an origin is not yet proven.

On other shelves of the teratological gallery
are shown numerous specimens to illustrate
the developmental abnormalities of hare-lip,
of cleft palate, and of other malformations
which have already been alluded to. Nor
need those ugly births detain us, in which the
top of the head is absent, giving the child a
frog-like appearance ; nor those in which the
spinal cord is exposed as a flat plate along the
back. But there are two very curious condi-
tions which may have some interest for the
reader. One of the conditions is that of
Cyclops. The two eyes are fused together,
forming a single eye under the middle of the
forehead. The condition is one which never

124 THE HUMAN BODY

could have existed at any stage of human
evolution. To understand its origin one must
first look at another series of specimens in
which the two lower extremities are fused
together and stretched out so as to form a
continuation of the axis of the trunk. One
can see very well how the hind limbs became
fused together in embryonic life. They appear
first as small flattened buds on the side of the
posterior part of the embryonic body. Now
if the posterior end is arrested in development
the two limb buds appear side by side in their
normal position, but being unseparated by
the hinder end of the body they fuse together
across its hinder end. Arrest of growth may
occur at the anterior end of the embryonic
body — ^the most anterior part being that which
separates the eyes and forms the middle part
of the nose. Hence if an arrest of growth
of the middle or nasal part of the face occurs
the eye buds are unseparated and they fuse
together in the earlier stages of facial develop-
ment. The anterior ends of the hemispheres
of the brain are also joined to some degree.
Thus we see that the posterior and anterior
ends of the embryo may be arrested in their
development, with the result that the hind
limbs fuse in the one case, the eyes in the other.
The one condition is known as sympodia, the
other as cyclops.

In cases of a human cyclops there is often
present a small appendage shaped like the

MONSTERS AND MALFORIVIATION 125

proboscis of an elephant. The appendage is
situated above the median eye and represents
the rudiments of the parts which are normally
incorporated in the development of the nose.
We cannot suppose that any human ancestor
was normally provided with a free proboscis
and median eye.

The second abnormality to which we would
draw the reader's attention relates to the lower
jaw or mandible. It is not uncommon to see
a face sadly deformed by an arrest of growth
of the lower jaw. Instead of projecting prom-
inently, the chin and lower lip are drawn
downwards and backwards so that the face
appears to merge into the neck without any
sharp boundary between them. The museum
specimens illustrate very pronounced examples
of this deformity. The arrest in the develop-
ment of the mandible and of the tissues formed
with it from the first visceral arch of the neck,
is almost complete. The ear holes, evolved
from the upper part of the first visceral (gill)
clefts are drawn downwards so that they almost
meet in front of the neck. It is possible that
this condition may be a reversion, for the lower
jaw is very poorly developed in several of
the most primitive types of fishes. It is
worthy of remark that this condition — known
as agnathia — may occur in all the domestic
breeds of animals and is especially frequent
in South Down sheep.

We will bring this brief survey of monsters

126 THE HUMAN BODY

and malformations to a conclusion by noting
a few of those congenital deformities which
affect the limbs. The fusion of the hind
limbs (sympodia) and congenital club foot
have been already mentioned and need not be
further described. It has also been mentioned
that the limbs appear as small flat outgrowths
from the side of the trunk at the end of the
third week of development, when the embryo
is only about a tenth of an inch in length.
It is a week later before the three limb segments
are differentiated — those of the upper arm
and thigh, of the forearm and leg, and of the
hand and foot. The buds of the upper and
lower extremities are at first very similar in
appearance. The fingers and toes, when they
first appear, are imbedded in the flattened
or webbed extremities. Often some degree
of webbing persists, and with this condition
some of the joints in the fingers or toes may
fail to form. Such abnormalities are apt to
be hereditary, and to run in families. The
limb buds may be arrested in growth at an
embryonic stage, and when the individual is
quite adult all that may be seen of them are
minute tags of skin. It is fortunate for us
that such severe errors or diseases of develop-
ment are of rare occurrence. One of the com-
monest departures from the normal is the
presence of an extra digit. Supernumerary
digits may be situated at the little finger or
thumb side of the hand. It is possible that

MONSTERS AND MALFORIMATION 127

the occurrence of a sixth digit may be due
to the reappearance of an ancestral condition,
but if so it must represent a very early stage
in the evolution of the hand and foot, for in
all the higher vertebrates the number of digits
does not exceed five. Man appears to retain
normally the original complement. It is
very possible that the extra digit is due to a
division or dichotomy of the bud for the little
finger or thumb. We have seen that one end
of the embryo may divide so as to form a
double individual, and it is also probable that
this may happen in the bud which gives rise
to a finger or toe.

Before leaving this subject we may glance
at a form of abnormality w4iich illustrates
the fact that when reversions occur in man
they usually relate to a very remote stage of
evolution. The abnormality to which we wish
to draw the reader's attention is a bony
process — the supracondyloid process — which
is attached to the inner side of the humerus a
few inches above the elbow joint. It occurs
in one body out of every fifty examined.
The preparations show that the main artery
and nerve of the upper arm pass under this
hook-like process. The supracondyloid pro-
cess appeared in the humerus of the ancestors
of modern mammals ; it is seen in many
reptiles ; the lemurs have it, so have the
carnivora and many other forms ; but it
is absent in all the higher primates except

128 THE HUMAN BODY

as an abnormality. Its use we do not know,
but it is remarkable that this trace of a pre-
mammalian stage should so often appear in
man. Sir John Struthers showed that it
passed from father to son, and one can con-
ceive that it may have persisted in some
individuals at every stage of man's evolution.
Mention has already been made of the
anomalous position of man's great toe, and of
the fact that no case of complete reversion
to the anthropoid condition has been observed
either in monstrous or normal human births.
The evidence that the human great toe was at
one time thumb-like and separated from the
other toes is, however, convincing, and we
have to see how the human condition could
have been evolved. It has just been men-
tioned that when the hand and foot are first
formed all the digits are united together
or webbed, as is the case in all mammals.
The separation of the thumb and great toe is
a secondary process. The great toe of man
appears to have been evolved by a retention of
the condition seen in the embryonic limb.
In other words, we may regard the great toe
of man, as far as its relationship to other
digits is concerned, as having reverted to the
primitive mammalian position.

CHAPTER IX

CHANGES IN THE BODY DURING YOUTH
AND AGE

In the last two chapters we have been con-
sidering the changes which occur in that phase
of our Uves which culminates at birth. Before
surveying those transformations which link
infancy to old age it is necessary to emphasize
one or two points relating to intra-uterine life.
There are really two stages in that life ; by
the end of the third month all the parts of the
body are formed, the active process of develop-
ment is over. During the last six months of
intra-uterine life the changes are those of
growth and of maturation. The years which
follow birth form a continuation of the latter
stage of f ostal life ; no new structure or
organ is laid down, bone and tooth formation
proceed as before, and the tissue cells continue
to divide and grow. By the act of birth
the economy of the human body is suddenly
changed. Up till then the placenta supplied
the child with oxygen and nourishment from
the mother's blood ; birth calls the lungs
suddenly into action, and the blood passages
I 129

180 THE HUMAN BODY

and heart undergo a rapid transformation to
suit the new respiration. The stomach and
bowels have to supply nourishment from
food. The remarkable transformation of the
lungs, heart and stomach in the newly born
child are not peculiar to man ; they are the
common heritage of the higher mammals.

From birth onwards the body continues
to change ; there is no stationary period ;
every year leaves its mark. Shakespeare
distinguished seven ages — " The infant mew-
ling and puking in the nurse's arms " — " the
•whining school boy " — " the lover sighing
like a furnace " — " the soldier . . .
bearded like the pard " — " the justice in fair
round belly . . . with eyes severe " —
" the lean and slippered pantaloon " — " second
childishness . . . sans teeth, sans eyes,
sans taste, sans everything." His description
of the age changes of the body is perhaps the
most graphic and complete ever penned.
Unconsciously every one of us is a student
of these bodily changes ; so familiar do we
become with them that with a glance of the
eye we estimate instinctively the age of a
passer-by. Our judgment is influenced by
many characters, most of all by those of the
face. Before we are aware of it we have
noted the skin of the face, observed its lines
and wrinkles, formed an impression of its
texture — in short of its probable age. Of all
the tissues of the body the skin and muscles

CHANGES DURING YOUTH & AGE 131

of expression which lie under the skin are the
most accurate registers of years. Not one
passes and leaves the skin just as it was ;
every year the tender, soft, suffused, velvety
covering of babyhood moves one degree
towards the dry, grey, wrinkled and loose
integument of the very aged. We never
mistake the " baby-fat " which gives the
plump rounded outlines of youth for the
obesity which may come with middle age.
It is true that we do not all grow up or grow
old at the same rate ; youth persists in some
and is delayed in others, so that in this case or
that our judgment may be a little astray.

The carriage of the body counts for much ;
the suppleness of joint, firmness of hand,
and agility of limb are marks of youth. The
old gentleman, although he walks erect, cannot
mislead us any more than the old lady who
seeks a means of restoring colour and smooth-
ness to the skin of her face. Our attention is
immediately arrested by an incongruity in
age of features ; a man may have grey hair
but his skin, his eyes, his lips and mouth tell
us he is still young. Age wipes gradually the
sharp outline from the lips and mouth ; the
eyes become a little duller and the eyelids
lose something of their cleanly cut youthful
shape. The form of the chest and trunk
changes ; the body never ceases maturing in
manhood nor decaying as age is advanced.
We have all studied the age changes of the

132 THE HUMAN BODY

body in the practical school of daily life.
The medical man is well aware that tissues
cannot live and not change, and that the
appearances of age we have noted in the face
are but symptoms of the decay that is attack-
ing all the tissues of the body. The elastic
tissue of the skin gradually loses its elasticity ;
although alive — at least we believe it is — it
is less alive than any other tissue of the body
and is less endowed with the powers of repair.
It is the first to suffer decay. The elastic
and muscular coats of our arteries are at their
best about twenty-five ; that is the age when
the hurdler, the footballer — all who have to
make sudden physical spurts — are in their
prime. The brain attains its most accurate
control of muscles between thirty and forty,
while as an organ of thought the brain itself
is at its best between forty and fifty. We see
then that the systems of the body mature
and age at different rates, but the collective
changes in the body occur so uniformly that
when an individual is brought before us we
are seldom at a loss in estimating the years
that have passed since birth.

Shakespeare's seven ages run their course
for most people in the Psalmist's limit of
threescore years and ten. How and when
did man come by his span of years ? We
have to seek for evidence in the light of the
evolutionary theory. How does the span of
life run in those animals which are allied to

CHANGES DURING YOUTH & AGE 133

man — the anthropoids and monkeys ? Let
us first look at the period of infancy — ^for that
is proportioned to the longevity of the adult.
Now the period of infancy may be defined as
that in which the milk teeth are erupting.
In man, all of the milk teeth — twenty in
number — are in place by the end of the second
year, but the period in many children extends
six months longer. The period of human
infancy then may be fixed at two years. In
monkeys and in the small anthropoids, the
gibbons, the milk dentition is completed
before the end of the first year. In some,
such as the semnopitheques, the incisor teeth
are cut at birth and the dentition is completed
in eight months. The gibbons are the most
important for our present purpose, because
we suppose them to represent a phase in the
evolution of the great anthropoids and of
man. The period of infancy in the gibbon
is then under one year. In the great anthro-
poids the milk teeth begin to appear some
three or four months after birth and this
dentition is not complete until some time in
the second year. The period of infancy in the
great anthropoids, therefore, is probably under
two years, but in its extent is comparable to
that of man. There is evidence to show that
the intra-uterine period of the gibbon is seven
months and that in the great anthropoids, as
in man, it is nine. We may be fairly certain,
therefore, that the lengthening of the periods

134, THE HUMAN BODY

of foetal and of infantile life took place
during the evolution of the great anthropoid
from the small — a. period which we have
already shown to be at least millions of
years ago.

We come now to the period of adolescence,
which we may regard as defined by the erup-
tion of the permanent teeth. In man this
period may be reckoned as extending from
the fifth to the twenty-second year, but we
have already seen that eruption of the third
molars or wisdom teeth may be long delayed
in civilized peoples and may appear at an
earlier date in primitive races. In monkeys
the adolescent period extends from the end of
the second to the end of the fifth year ; in
gibbons, so far as the evidence available gives
us warrant to make a definite statement —
from the end of the second to the sixth year.
In the great anthropoids the permanent teeth
commence to erupt in the fourth year and are
all in place before the end of the fourteenth
year. In the anthropoids then, the period of
adolescence extends to about the fourteenth
year, whereas in man it is prolonged to the
twenty-second. As to the natural span of
life of monkeys and of anthropoids we know
nothing, except from animals kept in cap-
tivity, but assuming the periods of infancy
and adolescence to form one-third of the total
life, we may suppose a gibbon at eighteen,
an anthropoid at forty-two, and a man at

CHANGES DURING YOUTH & AGE 135

sixty-six to be aged individuals. So far as the
evidence goes then it appears that long life
in the higher primates came with the evolu-
tion of a large body, but that man — at least
civilized man — appears to have extended his
span of life. Reliable observers assert that
the more uncivilized races, such as the natives
of Australia, show at forty-two the age change
of a European at sixty-two. The facts at
our disposal indicate that longevity is an old
inheritance of the human stock and that
modern man is longer lived than his fore-
runners.

One of the most remarkable changes of
infancy is the rapid growth of the head.
Everyone has noted the large head of early
childhood, especially when compared with
the slender neck which unites it to the trunk.
The rate of growth in the head during the
period of infancy is altogether out of propor-
tion to the increase in the rest of the body.
The facial part of the head does not share in
this rapid increase ; it is the cranial part —
the part containing the brain, which under-
goes a rapid expansion. The explanation lies
in the mushroom-like gro^vth of the infant's
brain. It is of the utmost importance that
the organ which is to guide the child through
the intricacies of human life should be formed
at the earliest possible date. By the end of
the second year the child's brain has attained
more than half of its adult size ; by the end of

136 THE HUMAN BODY

the fourth year over 80 per cent, of its nerve
tissue is already present. Indeed we may
say that when a child of five goes to school
all its nerve cells are formed and in place ;
the increase which follows relates to a growth
in the size of the child's body, for we know
that growth in the size of the body is accom-
panied by an increase of brain tissue — an
increase which is not connected with the
higher faculties. It is extremely important
to recognize such an element in the human
brain and it may be called for convenience
the " corporeal concomitant." The rapid
increase of the cranial capacity is a character
of the human infant. The brain of the newly
born gorilla, which is only slightly smaller
than that of a child at birth, is already 65
per cent, of its adult size ; the remainder of
its growth is probably due to the addition of
the " corporeal concomitant." From birth
onwards, the anthropoid brain continues to
increase at almost a uniform rate until adult
years are reached ; there is no spurt in growth
such as we see in the brain of the human
infant. The peculiarity of the human brain,
then, is its rapid growth in infancy and early
childhood. A child at five has only reached
that point in the growth of the brain which
the anthropoid has attained at birth. Man
then is peculiar in that his brain continues
to grow rapidly after birth, and in the great
expansion of the head in infancy and childhood

CHANGES DURING YOUTH & AGE 137

we see one of the latest phases in human
evolution.

The age changes in the face and neck are
ruled by other conditions. The face, from
an anatomist's point of view, is really part of
the apparatus of mastication. It is an acci-
dent, as it were, that the face has to accommo-
date the eyes and the nose. The facial part
of the head is a bony scaffolding for the upper
and lower jaw on which the teeth are set.
As the milk teeth come into place during
infancy, the face, still retaining its cherubic
roundness of outline, increases gradually in
size and strength. During adolescence, as
the permanent teeth come into use one after
another, the jaws themselves grow to accom-
modate the erupting molars or chewing teeth ;
the facial scaffolding is enlarged to support
them, while the muscles which move the lower
jaw undergo a rapid growth. Every one
must have observed that the features of the
boy or of the girl, are replaced by bolder and
rougher outlines as the last of the teeth come
into position. The muscles of mastication
which arise on the bony outworks on the side
of the skull need stouter supports. The
bony ridges of the cheek and skull become
emphasized and the features rapidly change.
The growth of the neck does not proceed at
the same pace as that of the head. Most of us
may recall, if our memories carry us back to
the details of boyhood life, that every second

138 THE HUMAN BODY

or third year we took a larger size in collars,
while we wore hats of the same size for a
number of years on end. The rapid growth
of the head took place during infancy and
early childhood. At first sight it is not
apparent why the neck should keep time in its
growth with the muscles of mastication. It
is so, however, and the reason becomes
apparent when one remembers that the skull,
which serves as a fulcrum for the muscles of
mastication, must be steadied when these are
in action. The skull is balanced and fixed
by the muscles of the neck. It will be observed
that it is the men with the wide, squarely-set,
massive jaws and cheeks who have their
heads deeply implanted in their necks. We
describe them as strong, bull-necked men —
people of a strong will and with a healthy
appetite. In anthropoids we find the jaws
massive, the muscles of mastication so large
that they envelop the skull, and with heads
hafted to exceedingly thick and muscular
necks. It is as adult years are reached that
we see the most marked changes occur in the
fixation of the head and in the size of jaws.
The changes in the head and neck so far
described are those of infancy, youth and early
manhood or womanhood, they are growth
changes. Not a word has been said of the
changes which set in with old age. There is
no stationary interval between the first and the
last. By the time the final form of the head has

CHANGES DURING YOUTH & AGE 139

been determined by the processes of growth
the changes of decay set in. In some, these
are marked by obesity ; in many they are
emphasized by an absorption of the natural
fat, which leaves the skin loose and the skele-
ton, muscles and veins apparent. With
advancing years the muscles of mastication
undergo a process of atrophy and the fat round
them is absorbed ; the temples therefore
become hollow, and the bony processes of the
skull become surface markings. With the loss
of teeth the jaws atrophy, the cheeks fall in,
the mouth becomes shapeless. With the
atrophy of the jaws and muscles of mastication
the neck becomes thin and its skin lies in
folds.

We are now to examine a number of changes
which occur in the human body preparatory
to the assumption of the upright posture. In
the latter part of infancy we see the body
becoming modified for walking. During the
first year the lower extremities cannot support
the body, not because they are not strong
enough, but because the brain has not yet
gained control of the muscles which are needed
to balance the body on the feet. Yet Dr. Louis
Robinson has shown that a newly born child
has sufficient strength in its grasp to support
the weight of the body from the hands. The
newly born monkey clings to its mother as she
takes plunging leaps from tree to tree, by
grasping the hair on the under surface of her

140 THE HUMAN BODY

body with its fingers and toes. The anthro-
poid, like the human infant, has short legs and
cannot extend them into a line with the body.
As the infant attempts to stand and walk, the
legs are slightly bent at the knees and flexed
at the hips. Presently, as the period of child-
hood is entered and the art of walking is
acquired, the lower limbs grow at a faster
rate than the rest of the body and peculiar
changes occur at the hip and knee joints, which
allow the limbs to be completely extended
in line with the body, and to be used in stand-
ing and walking. While the chick can run the
minute it escapes from the shell, the human
child has to learn laboriously even the art of
standing. In the newly born child the lower
limbs form only two-fifths of the standing
height ; in the adult they form a half or a little
more — according to the individual and to the
race. We shall obtain a better insight into
these remarkable adaptations for walking if
we take the combined length of the trunk and
head as a standard of measurement. In the
human foetus at the sixth month of develop-
ment the lower limbs are only 55. per cent, of
the head-trunk length ; at birth they are, in
the average individual, 62 per cent., and in the
adult 102 per cent, of the head and trunk
measured in a straight line. If we now turn
to see how the anthropoids compare with man
we find that their lower limbs have about the
same relationship to the head-trunk length

CHANGES DURING YOUTH & AGE 141

as in the newly born child — varying from 50
to 70 per cent. — but no special growth takes
place in their lower extremities soon after birth
as is the case in children. 'The lower limbs
of the adult gibbon are 78 per cent, of its head-
trunk length, those of the gorilla 66 per cent.,
those of the orang 58 per cent. Thus we see
that the lower limbs of a child at birth have the
same proportionate length as the anthropoid.
The peculiarity of man is the rapid growth
which takes place after birth and adapts the
limbs for standing and walking.

At the same time as the lower limbs are
undergoing a special growth in the child
another change is taking place in the loins or
waist of the body. No one who has closely
watched the crawling child trying to stand up,
can have failed to notice that it not only raises
itself at the hinge or joint between the body
and the thighs, but that the trunk is also bent
backwards at the loins. The lumbar part of
the backbone, which supports the loins be-
tween the pelvis below and the chest above,
is made up of five vertebrae in man. This part
of the spinal column supports and balances
the upper part of the trunk. Now in all the
great anthropoids the lumbar part of the spinal
column is very short ; the pelvis is closely
knit to the expanded chest. The significance
of this feature of the anthropoid spinal column
is very apparent when these animals are seen
swinging along, sustaining their weight as

142 THE HUMAN BODY

much from their hands as supporting it by
their feet and legs, or even more. They do not
habitually support and balance their bodies
on the lumbar part of the spine as we do. In
the newly born child the lumbar part is 27 per
cent, of the total length of the spinal column — •
the same as in the adult chimpanzee. As the
child learns to walk the lumbar region rapidly
elongates, so that in adult man it forms 32 per
cent, of the total length of his vertebral pillar.
Here again we see a peculiar feature of man's
body being developed in early childhood —
a feature which adapts him to the upright
posture. The short lumbar segment is an
anthropoid character ; it is replaced by a
long segment which, as regards the higher
primates, is peculiar to man.

These remarkable changes in the loins and
lower limbs in early childhood, which have
been thus cursorily described, are growth
changes which fit the human body for man's
peculiar method of locomotion. We recog-
nize how perfectly these adaptations have been
evolved from the easy and jaunty manner in
which young people carry themselves. When
forty years of age or thereabouts is reached,
however, the suppleness of the joints and the
easy co-ordination of the muscles begin to
show some degree of impairment. As old age
approaches the muscles shrink from thigh and
calf ; the knees become bent, the hip joints
stiff and incapable of full extension, the back

CHANGES DURING YOUTH & AGE 143

bends and shrinks, while the muscles and
joints of the spine fail to maintain the trunk
and head in a position of easy balance. Old
age wrecks the mechanism of the upright
posture for every one of us. Yet in youth it
seems such an easy thing to stand or walk.

The chief structural changes which occur
after birth are concerned with the growth of
the brain and the adaptation of the human
body to upright plantigrade progression.
These represent the most recently acquired
characters of man. It is very apparent, too,
that a complete human life is made up of two
distinct periods — one in which growth is
predominant and one in which decay is
predominant ; where the one period ends —
about the twenty-fifth year — the other begins.

CHAPTER X

THE SEXUAL CHAEACTERS OF THE HUMAN
BODY

Some years ago Mr. Havelock Ellis collected
all the observations which have been recorded
regarding the differences between the body and
mind of man and woman and made them into
a most interesting and valuable book. From
the crown of her head to the sole of her foot
woman's body differs from man's. She buttons
her dress differently, she walks, speaks, and
breathes differently. We are so accustomed
to the division of mankind into two forms that
we never think of the possibility of man and
woman being formed alike. Our business in
this chapter, however, is not to picture a world
populated with men and women, alike in
mind and body, except in the essential parts
relating to sex. Our purpose is to see what
light we can obtain on the origin of the sexual
differentiation of mankind, and ascertain if
possible how and why the two sexes have been
endowed with different characters.

Now, although the thousand and one char-
acters which have been enumerated by Mr.

144

SEXUAL CHARACTERS 145

Havelock Ellis distinguish the parts of the
female body from the male, there do occur
eases where the distinctions are but ill-
defined. It is not necessary to say that
occasionally women appear to assume the
form of body and features of face we associate
with men, while just as frequently we see men
who are feminine in their stature and build.
In such cases, where we have only a part of
the body to provide us with the necessary
evidence, it may be difficult or even impossible
to determine the sex. This was forcibly
brought home to the writer a few months ago
when a complete skeleton was excavated on
the coast of Essex by Mr. Hazzeldine Warren.
It was proved from the objects found with it,
and from the stratum in which it lay, that the
individual whose skeleton was thus found,
had lived 4,000 years or more ago — when the
natives of England used rough pottery for
cooking and flint knives for cutting. When
Mr. Warren brought the skeleton to nue I
lifted the skull from the box and said it was
that of a woman. My judgment was founded
on several of its characters. The first and chief
was that the bony ridges which give attach-
ment for the muscles of mastication and for
those of the neck were not so strongly marked
as in the male sex, for in a man these muscles
are usually strong and their impressions very
distinct. The impressions on the base of the
skull for the attachment of the neck indicated

146 THE HUMAN BODY

the tapering, slender neck of a woman, not the
thicker and stronger neck of a man. The
bony ridges which cross the forehead were
not prominent as is the rule in men. The face,
too, was moderately long, oval and slender
in form, while the teeth, although well
developed and somewhat worn, were small in
size when compared with those of a typical
man. The skull was small in size. On an
average the cavity of the skull of a man holds
140 cubic centimetres (five ounces) more than
that of a woman, and is a quarter of an inch
longer and one- sixth of an inch wider. In
these characters this skull corresponded to
those of a woman. I concluded, therefore,
that the skeleton must be that of a woman.
The reader, however, is already aware that
there is here and there a man with a skull
which may answer to all of these tests.

Mr. Warren, however, had formed an oppo-
site opinion as to sex, and drew my attention
to the pelvis. That part of the skeleton as a
rule affords undisputable evidence as regards
sex. In the female it is widened so as to
give passage to the child at birth. In the
specimen from Essex there were all the out-
ward appearances of the pelvis of a small and
slender man. It was stout and muscular ;
the pelvic cavity was neither capacious nor
shallow, nor was its outlet wide and roomy as
in the typical female pelvis. Although a few
of the minor characters of the pelvis were

SEXUAL CHARACTERS 147

suggestive of the female sex, yet I had to agree
with Mr. Warren that the major ones were mas-
cuhne. There was no doubt as to the pelvis and
the skull being parts of the same individual
and yet there was apparently an incongruity
between their sexual characters. The height
of the skeleton indicated a person of 5 ft. 4 in.
in stature, that is only half an inch more than
the stature of an average woman and three
and a half inches less than an average man.
The stature indicated again the female sex,
but all of us have seen women of 5 ft. 8 in.
and men of 5 ft. 4 in. The thigh-bones, the
bones of the arm and of the leg were slender,
but still not so finely marked as to exclude the
male sex. The bones of the hands and feet
were small ; these were female characters.
When, however, we came to examine the ribs,
the breast-bone and the chest as a whole, all
question as to sex was settled. The breast-
bone was of the short wide form which is onlv
seen in women. When the ribs, which were
rounded and rather slender in form, were
placed in position, it was seen that the thorax
was well formed in the upper part, as is usual
in women, and fell aAvay in the lower part so as
to conform to a narrowing at the waist. When
the pelvis Avas placed in its proper position as
regards the thorax it became evident that in
spite of its masculine characters it was much
wider than the thorax. The width of the
lower or pelvic part of the body as compared

148 THE HUMAN BODY

with the breadth of the thorax is a striking
feature of the female body. In males the
pelvis is usually narrower than the chest. In
statues and paintings of the nude, this char-
acter of the female body is always to be seen.
A certain degree of narrowing at the waist is
natural to a woman, for we are dealing here
with one who lived long before the days of
corsets. The short breast-bone, the well
developed upper part of the chest are adap-
tations to woman's natural method of breath-
ing. She uses the upper part of her chest
more than the lower part in breathing, while
men usually do the opposite. It is true that
this statement has been denied and that obser-
vations made on primitive races have been
published to show that man and woman, in a
condition of nature, breathe alike. My own
observations point to an exactly opposite
conclusion, and in this I am in agreement with
the majority of students of the human body.
There can be little doubt that woman's
breathing is modified so as to minimise the
pressure to which the developing foetus would
be subjected in the later months of child
bearing if the type of breathing were abdomi-
nal or diaphragmatic as in the male.

From the survey which has been given it
will be realized that every part of the skeleton
is modified in connexion with sex. Further
it will be evident that there is a variation in
the degree to which these characters are

SEXUAL CHARACTERS 149

developed from individual to individual and
from part to part. For instance, in the case
just related the female characters of the pelvis
were not apparent until it was contrasted
with the thorax. It often happens, however,
when we have to deal with individual skulls or
limb bones that great difficulty is experienced
in determining sex. Most anatomists agree
that in every hundred skulls there are five
at least, possibly ten, of which the sex cannot
be postulated with any degree of certainty.
This is particularly the case when the skulls
are those of women who have passed the
age of child bearing, for after that period
growth changes often set in.

The problem of the origin of sexes does
not concern us here ; it is sufficient to say that
long before the very lowest forms of vertebrate
animals had been evolved, individuals were
already born either male or female. The
questions one would like to answer are the
following : Have man and woman always
been as sharply marked off from each other
as now ? Is the sexual difference really
decreasing or increasing ? Is it possible that
the day may come when to all outward
appearances man and woman may seem the
same ? We turn to the evidence which the
anthropoids can afford us. The most primi-
tive— the small anthropoids or gibbons — show
us the sexes so alike that it is hard to tell the
male from the female. The female is the

150 THE HinVIAN BODY

heavier animal ; her canine teeth are as long
and sharp as in the male ; the muscular ridges
in her bones are equally well marked. Yet
there are minor differences between them,
but they are not so decisive as to allow us to
determine sex except by examining the essen-
tial organs of generation. Here, then, is
a primitive condition showing an apparent
equality in sexual characters. In the great
anthropoids the sexual differences are very
marked. These are most pronounced in the
gorilla, the anthropoid which stands nearest
to man if we take all the characters of the
body into account. In mass of body, in
muscular development, strength of limb,
size of jaws and teeth, the male gorilla
exceeds the female to a greater degree than
man overshadows woman. The male is the
fighter. Amongst chimpanzees the difference
between the sexes is about the same in amount
and in kind as in the human species. Amongst
orangs the sex characters are more marked
than among chimpanzees, but less than is
seen in gorillas. The canine or eye teeth
mark the sexes of the great anthropoids.
They are especially large in the male gorilla
and are most reduced and therefore most
nearly resemble the human canine in the
female chimpanzee. Among human races
the canines have fallen to the level of the other
teeth in both male and female, yet we must
infer that at one time they were large in size

SEXUAL CHARACTERS 151

with prominent conical points, just as in the
great anthropoids, for their buds are formed
deeper in the jaw than the other teeth.
The buds of our canine teeth are formed in
the same anomalous position as in the chim-
panzee and gorilla.

There is also a sexual difference as regards
the brain. The male anthropoid has much
the heavier brain. Amongst gorillas the male
brain is eighteen per cent, larger than that
of the female, amongst orangs fourteen per
cent., and amongst chimpanzees eight per
cent. ; while in human races it is about twelve
per cent. When we sum up the bearing of
these facts on human history we must infer
that the differences which we see between the
bodies of man and woman are of old standing.
The great anthropoids show about the same
degree and the same kind of sexual differentia-
tion. ]\Ian and anthropoid seem to have
inherited their sexual characters from that
common stock of primates which appeared
many millions of years ago in an early stage
of the Miocene period. Even in the most
remote and dark period of jungle existence
we see that the body of man is specialized
in one direction, and that of woman in
another. It is a standing law of ]Nature that
a difference in the structure of the whole body
signifies a different function in the whole
body. We must, therefore, conclude that
before the period of civilization dawned on

152 THE HUMAN BODY

the world the bodies of man and woman were
already specialized for different sides of
human life. Legislation can give the sexes
equal opportunities of life, but it cannot
blot out the structural differences between
man and woman. These have taken
geological epochs to produce. When, too,
we see that th-e degree of sexual differentiation
is just as marked in high as in low races of
mankind we must infer that there is no
evidence to support the idea that civilization
will in time produce a structural equality
in the two sexes.

We can obtain further light on the nature
of our sexual characters by watching their
development in the foetus and child.
Although we have reason to believe that the
sex of the individual is already determined
when the human egg is fertilized, we cannot
distinguish a raale embryo from a female
until the second month of development is
nearly finished. When the anatomy of a
human embryo of this stage is examined it is
seen that there are four tubes passing side
by side within the hinder part of the body
to end in the common cloacal passage or exit.
The two inner or middle tubes become the
oviducts or channels for the two genital
glands of the female ; the two outer or lateral
ducts — ^the sperm or Wolffian ducts — become
the passages for the two male glands. Before
the end of the second month it beconues

SEXUAL CHARACTERS 153

possible to tell whether the two genital glands
are to be those of a male or of a female. The
gland assumes either the structure of an ovary
or of a testicle. As soon as the characters
of the glands are determined we see changes
taking place in the genital passages. If the
sexual glands are those of the female the
oviducts grow together, fuse in their lower
parts to form the uterus, while the upper parts
remain separate and form the Fallopian tubes
or egg-ducts. On the other hand, the two lateral
or Wolffian ducts are arrested in groA\i:h, and
only vestiges of them persist. If the sexual
glands of the embryo are of the male character
— testicles — the lateral or sperm ducts develop,
while the oviducts become reduced to vestiges.
In the male foetus the cloaca becomes enclosed
to form a male organ ; in the female the cloaca
remains open. We believe that the sexual
glands, as soon as they are differentiated,
throw a secretion into the circulation which
acts on the sex tubes or channels ; the
secretion of the testis causes the male parts
to grow and the female parts to atrophy ;
that of the ovary stimulates the female parts
and restrains the male.

The human embryo, like all vertebrate
embryos, is furnished at first with the basal
parts of both sexes. It is usual, therefore,
to suppose that we have descended from a
hermaphrodite form — one in which the organs
of both sexes were combined. This cannot

154 THE HUMAN BODY

be regarded as a good explanation, for although
in a few rare cases an imperfect sexual gland
has been found, which showed some resem-
blance to the structure of a testicle in one
part and to an ovary in another, there is not
a single case of a true testicle and a true
ovary having been found in the same person.
A true human hermaphrodite has not been
seen. The explanation which best accounts
for the presence of both male and female
ducts in the embryo is the fact that the
male has to be the father of daughters as well
as of sons ; for that reason he must have a
representation of the parts necessary to the
one sex as well as of the other. Similarly
the mother must be capable of handing on
sexual characters to her sons as well as to her
daughters. Hence both sexes are necessarily
supplied with the parts proper to each sex.
This statement is also true of the breasts ;
rudiments of these are present in both sexes
at birth. When the human embryo is only
a month old a ridge on the skin (the mammary
ridge) is seen to extend along each side of its
body from the armpits to the groins. Some
months later the parts of these ridges which
lie on the upper part of the thorax undergo
a development and form the two mammae
or breasts, while the rest of the ridge atrophies
and disappears. The breasts undergo a slight
development before, and immediately after
birth, and then remain in abeyance until

SEXUAL CHARACTERS 155

marked changes occur in the sexual organs at
puberty. At that age they remain small
in the male, but in the female they grow
rapidly, and take on their characteristic size
and form.

One of the most important recent advances
in our knowledge of the sexual glands is the
discovery that they are double in their
structure and function. They are composed
not only of germinal tissue, which gives
origin to the reproductive elements, but
also of another tissue which is glandular
in nature and supplies a substance to the
various parts of the body by means of the
circulating blood. On some parts of the
body this substance has a most powerful
influence, and stimulates growth. The secre-
tion which issues from the ovary at puberty
acts upon the latent breasts, and calls forth
their growth in the female ; the secretion
of the sexual glands of the male has no such
influence. There are numerous proofs of the
truth of this statement. I need not relate
the facts which medical men are well aware
of ; those who are familiar with unsexed
domestic animals will need no further proof
of the influence of the testicles in moulding
the form of the body. At the end of each
pregnancy a secretion derived from the genital
parts of the mother, which acts on the breasts,
leads them to increase in size and yield a
secretion of milk. These facts are extremely

156 THE HUMAN BODY

important to us because they reveal the
secret and yet simple manner in which nature
works out the physical characters of our bodies.
The breasts must be reckoned as parts —
secondary parts or characters — of our sexual
system. The reader already knows that
milk-giving glands appeared with the evolution
of mammals. The thoracic position of the
milk glands is also an old feature of the stock
from which mankind arose, for in all monkeys
and anthropoids we find only two mammae,
which occupy the same position as in man.
In the ape embryo, as in the human, a mam-
mary ridge is formed along each side of the
body. In many mammals, such as the sow
and bitch, mammae are formed on the whole
length of the mammary ridge — ^from armpit
to groin. It occasionally happens in men
and women that besides the usual pair of
breasts, others may be formed just below or
just above the normal breast glands. Rudi-
ments of supernumerary mammae and nipples
are not rare ; vestiges may be seen in one out
of every twenty men or women. We may
infer from these facts that the stock from
which the ape-like mammals descended was
one with breasts arranged along the length
of the body as in the pig. The supernumerary
nipples and mammae which occasionally occur
in man are revivals of characters belonging
to a remote stage in the evolution of the
mammalian stock.

SEXUAL CHARACTERS 157

At birth the boy and girl are much alike
in appearance. It is true the boy has usually
a stouter and heavier body and a larger head
than the girl, yet it is only from the deeper
parts that the sex can be told with certainty.
At birth and even before birth, the sexual
glands are influencing the development of
the body. Professor Arthur Thomson, of
Oxford, noted that in the foetus of five months
the pelvic bones of the two sexes w^ere slightly
different in shape. It is at puberty that the
glandular influence becomes most marked.
We have already seen how rapid the increase
of stature is in girls from the twelfth to the
fourteenth year, and in boys between fourteen
and sixteen. It is at the period of puberty
that the breasts of the female develop ; at
the same time the pelvis takes on its roomy
character. The breadth in the lower part
of the body becomes a marked feature in
woman. The tops of the thigh-bones which
articulate at the sides of the pelvis are pushed
outwards and become relatively further apart
than in the male. Hence when walking,
women have to make rather a greater effort
than men, for with each step the weight of
her body has to be transferred across her
wide pelvis from one thigh to the other.
At puberty, too, the type of breathing changes ;
respiration becomes centred more in the upper
than in the lower part of the chest. The
thorax changes in form. The use of corsets

158 THE HUMAN BODY

tends to emphasize, even to a degree of
distortion, the normal prominence of the
upper part of the thorax of women, and at
the same time, by constricting the waist, to
bring into prominence the lateral projection
of the pelvic part o|. the body. In all races
and in both sexes, fashion is often the excuse
for exaggerating the natural characters of
the body.

In the boy's body it is another set of
structures which are affected at pubert}^
About the sixteenth year we notice the face
begins to change. The hair roots of the
beard, which had up to then remained latent,
are stimulated, and hairs begin to peer out
on lips and cheek. The whole muscular
system gains in size and strength ; the bones
of the skeleton become thicker and longer,
to meet the increased strain of the muscles.
The whole apparatus of mastication undergoes
a change ; the maxillae and all the bones of
the face increase in size and strength ; the
muscles of mastication extend their origin
on the skull ; the bony ridges, which give
origin to these muscles, become more pro-
nounced. The ridges which cross the forehead
above the orbit are slowly developed, and
become more massive and prominent than
in the female. The nose assumes its adult
form ; its growth is often out of harmony
with the rest of the face. The slender,
child-like neck, which persists in women.

SEXUAL CHARACTERS 159

begins to become stouter and thicker in
young men. In some this increase in the
growth and strength of the neck ceases soon
after puberty. Such men retain to some
degree the tapering neck and prominent
occiput of the boy. In other men the thick-
ness of the neck may continue to increase
until the thirtieth year, so that the back of
the head appears as if it had been pressed into
their stout necks ; the occiput, which projected
in boyhood, disappears with the age changes
of the neck. The heart and the lungs have
to respond, in order to meet the increased
needs of the muscular and bony systems.
The chest expands, especially its lower part ;
and bit by bit we see the loose- jointed frame
of the boy become the closely knit and filled-
out body of the mature man. All these changes,
we believe, are stimulated, and to some degree
regulated, by a secretory mechanism seated in
the sexual glands of the male.

One of the most marvellous changes in
boys at puberty is the breaking of the voice.
The reader is already familiar with the
prominence to be seen and felt in the front
of the neck, popularly known as " Adam's
Apple." On this prominence the finger will
distinguish the sharp keel-like projection of
the chief cartilage of the larynx — the thyroid
cartilage. A notch or hollow can be felt on
its upper border, and just above the notch
the hyoid bone, which moves with the tongue.

160 THE HUMAN BODY

The lower border of the thyroid cartilage
cannot be made out clearly with the finger,
but about half an inch below it, the anterior
hoop of the ring-like cartilage of the larynx
— the cricoid — can be felt. Below the cricoid
follow the cartilaginous hoops of the windpipe.
Now the two vocal reeds or cords, which can
be set vibrating with the breath, are fixed
within the keel or prominence of the thyroid
cartilage by their anterior ends, while their
hinder ends are attached to two swivel-like
cartilages which are set on the hinder
and upper edge of the cricoid cartilage.
When we are breathing naturally the vocal
cords are drawn apart by special muscles,
leaving a triangular interval — ^the glottis — •
between them. When we speak the cords
are approximated and only a narrow chink
separates them. The vocal cords can be
tightened or slackened, thus altering the
note of the voice. There are special muscles
for every movement of the vocal cords.
Although singers may not know a single one
of these muscles, they can learn to use them,
so as to produce what sequence of notes they
will. When a boy reaches the age of puberty,
all these structures of the larynx — the carti-
lages, the cords and the muscles, undergo a
rapid growth ; the boy's voice " breaks "
and becomes hoarse and then manly. It is
well known that this change can be prevented,
for it was a custom in eastern countries to

SEXUAL CHARACTERS 161

emasculate choir boys, in order to preserve
their voices. In such cases the other sexual
characters — the beard, the muscular develop-
ment, the face, head, neck and body changes
were also arrested. One other remarkable
change occurred, the limbs, especially the
legs, grew to a greater length than in the
normal man. Eunuchs are much above the
average stature, and they are apt to become
fat, for there is no doubt that there is a
relationship between the tendency to the
deposition of fat, especially on the lower
parts of the body, and the activity — or rather
non-activity — of the sexual glands in men
and women.

These influences of the sexual glands on the
growth and form of the human body are of
the greatest interest to scientific men, because
they seem to afford a clue to the laws which
regulate the shape of our bodies. Just as the
activity of these glands leads to one set of
bodily changes, so it happens, as their activity
decreases and their influence is withdrawn,
certain parts of the body undergo a further
modification. In most women a decided
change comes over their features about the
fiftieth year. The female sexual glands are
then undergoing a down-grade change. Some
of these changes, such as the increased
wrinkling of the skin and the deepening of
natural furrows, are purely effects of age,
but the increased prominence of the cheek

162 THE HUMAN BODY

bones, the more decided prominence of the
supra-orbital ridges, the more massive angles
of the jaw and the thickening of the neck,
seem to depend on some other factor. There
may be a tendency to a straggling growth of
hair on the lips and cheeks, and a deepening
in the tone of the voice. All these modifica-
tions appear to be a mild assertion of male
characters — or perhaps it would be more
correct to say of neutral or asexual characters,
for both man and woman are modifications
of a third individual which we may name the
neuter or asexual. The withdrawal of the
sexual secretion, which restrained the growth
of certain parts and helped to preserve the
attractions of young womanhood, seem to
allow the natural forces of growth to reassert
themselves. In men the function of the
sexual organs persists to a late period in life,
and hence we see no corresponding changes
in the opposite sex.

It will be observed that of the two sexes,
the male is the more specialized ; the female
the least. It is she who retains the characters
of youth or of childhood — not only in the face,
neck and body, to a much greater degree than
the male, but women have also the good
fortune to preserve to a greater extent the
power of enjoyment of life which is natural
to the child. The male has another destiny ;
his brute strength and his courage are bought
with a price.

SEXUAL CHARACTERS 163

It has already been remarked that there is
a greater tendency on the part of African races,
than is the case with European races, to
retain certain child-Hke characters. This is
also true as regards certain sexual characters.
The African male, as a rule, shows only a
slight growth of hair on the lips and cheeks
at puberty. The beard does not sharply
distinguish the male from the female. Nor
is the female pelvis of the African woman
so roomy and capacious as that of European
women. Indeed in primitive races there
is a tendency for the sexes to approach each
other in the pelvic characters.

CHAPTER XI

RACIAL CHARACTERS OF THE BODY

If I were to declare openly that this chapter
is nothing more or less than an attempt to
expound the " Principles of Physical Anthro-
pology," I fear that I should turn my readers
away with the declaration that they do not
wish to know anything of a subject which
has such a forbidding title. The subject,
however, is really not uninteresting, and the
reader will be surprised to discover he knows
much more of it than he is aware. Modern
commerce and our world-wide enterprise have
brought all the races of the earth as visitors
to our shores. We see them plentifully in
our great seaports, and even in the most
remote country villages we have now and then
an opportunity of making their acquaintance.
It is on those occasions we discover that we
do know something of Anthropology — or Eth-
nology as it is sometimes named. How
otherwise did we recognize that the stranger
who drew the eyes of the village on him was
a Chinaman, a Red Indian or a Negro ?
If, however, we are asked how we knew, we

164

RACIAL CHARACTERS 165

find we are not quite certain, and that our
knowledge of the subject is rather subconscious.
Those who study the bodily characters of the
varieties of mankind are seeking to make this
subconscious knowledge into a system of
well-defined facts to which the name of
Physical Anthropology is given. We collect
these facts not only to ascertain how one race
differs from another in structure of body,
but we have a larger aim in view, we wish to
know how and when the earth became
populated with a diverse humanity.

It is always well to begin our study at home.
When we see a regi-ment in full dress march
past we recognize it as the " Suffolks," the
" Gordons," the " Connaughts," or the " Welsh
Fusiliers," as the case may be. When,
however, the soldiers file silently past, dressed
alike in a fighting uniform, without a number
or a badge, can we distinguish the nationality ?
I doubt if one could, and I hold the opinion
that, however many racial stocks have been
planted from time to time within the bounds
of Britain, the condition at the present day
is such that we cannot tell — except from
speech, temperament or local mannerisms —
whether a given batch of men are English,
Scotch, Welsh or Irish. It is possible that the
professed anthropologist, by making a series
of measurements as regards height, proportion,
and shape of head, and other observations
on colour of skin, and eyes and hair, could

166 THE HUMAN BODY

tell the part of the country from which each
batch came. Our difficulty lies in the fact
that in every county we see that there are
many types of body and face and many shades
in the colour of hair and skin. It is true that in
some counties certain types prevail and other
types are uncommon, while in other counties
these same types occur in an opposite pro-
portion. At the present time there is a
tendency to suppose that a pure race is made
up of individuals having the same form of
body, and that, if within the bounds of a
country or of a county several types are
found, there has been a mixture of races in
that country or county in past times. Such
an opinion seems quite reasonable, especially
when we remember how many invading
peoples have settled in Britain from first to
last. When, however, we begin to survey
even the purest human races we find within
their communities just as great a variety of
bodily form as is to be seen in any part of
Britain. Nay, I am quite certain that the
reader can recall families in which some were
tall and some short, some dark and some
fair, some with a narrow face and some with
a wide face. The existence of numerous
types and varieties inside even the purest race
is a most important fact, for it is easy to see
how the characters of the race might be
changed if certain types flourished and
increased in numbers, while other types were

RACIAL CHARACTERS 167

gradually repressed and ultimately dis-
appeared. So far as we know there is no
selection of any special type in progress in
Britain.

If, however, we were to pick a man from
the streets of Strassburg, and set him
side by side with the first man we met in
Nottingham, we should probably see the two
chief types of mankind in Western Europe.
We have nothing to do with the national
spirit, the speech, the hairdressing and
tailoring which mark the one off from the
other ; these are of the greatest importance,
but they are outside the bounds of physical
anthropology. The colour of hair and com-
plexion of skin, hue of eye, may be the same
in these two individuals drawn from towns
so far apart ; their faces may be of the same
type ; it is probable, however, that the
Englishman's face is the longer and narrower.
Their stature may be the same — possibly the
Englishman is the taller by about half an inch,
but not heavier. The form of head, however,
is totally different. When we take the length
and breadth of the Englishman's head we
shall probably find that its breadth is between
seventy-four and seventy-six per cent, of its
length, or if we wish to give our knowledge a
learned turn we say that his " cephalic
index " is between seventy-four and seventy-
six. In the Strassburger's head the cephalic
index is probably between eighty and eighty-

168 THE HUMAN BODY

two. When we look at his head in profile it
appears as if it had been compressed frora
back to front, so that the width of the head
has been increased and the brain pushed
forwards, thus coming to occupy a more
anterior position above and in front of the
ears. The height of the head is increased.
The Englishman's head has been compressed
from side to side and rather flattened on the
top, so that it does not appear to be so high
as the German head. We find then that the
best mark to distinguish the typical English-
man from the typical German is the shape
of the head. It must not be forgotten,
however, that in Nottingham, as in Strassburg,
there are all forms of head, but the rounded
type prevails in the one and the long type in
the other. It is possible, but very unlikely,
that two individuals, selected by chance,
may have the same types of head.

If we estimate the capacity of the skull in
these two selected types of man, we shall
probably find that in size of brain chamber
they are about equal, each containing from
1,480 to 1,500 cubic centimetres of brain.
When, however, the reader asks me why the
head is long in one and round in the other,
I must confess that no satisfactory answer
can be given to the question at the present
time. We know, however, that the head is
artificially and grossly distorted in infancy
by many races of mankind — indeed the

RACIAL CHARACTERS 169

custom was once common in Europe — without
producing any marked mental change. The
brain also suffers a change in shape in those
cases of distortion, but travellers have noted
that the men with the altered heads are just
as intelligent as those whose heads have
escaped constriction. The brain seems to
work as well in one shape of skull as in
another. As a matter of daily experience
we have no reason to think that the round-
headed man is more capable than the long-
headed, and yet when we come to trace the
history of long-headed races in Europe we
meet with facts which give matter for thought.
If we make a survey of modern Europe
we find the long-headed races scattered along
her western shores — in Norway, in Britain,
in those parts of Denmark, Germany and
Holland which flank the North Sea ; in Spain,
and to a less degree in parts of France and
Italy. Round-headed peoples dominate the
great central region of Europe. If, however,
we go back 5,000 years and examine the
graves of that remote period, we obtain a
different picture of head and racial distribution
in Europe. The German, the Swiss, the
French graves of that time contain the bones
of men who were of the long-headed type ; we
must suppose them to represent the people
of the country at that period. We know from
history and from tradition that waves of
round-headed races have pressed westwards

170 THE HUMAN BODY

and southwards in Europe, and all the evidence
goes to show that these waves issued from that
part of Europe now included in the Russian
Empire. We know, too, that an advance
guard of the round-head invasion reached
our shores some 4,000 years ago, when bronze
was the metal employed by civilized races.
Graves of these people have been found from
Yorkshire to Kent, and in Scotland. They
were conquerors and yet they could not save
their head-form ; in the course of generations
the round head merged in the long, not
perhaps without some effect on our modern
head-form. We have every reason to think,
then, that in Europe the round head is the
prevailing type. Indeed, had it not been for
the discovery of America and of Australia the
long-headed type of European would have
been sparsely represented in the modern
world.

We now set out to enquire which of these
two types of head, the round or the long, is
the older or more primitive. We turn first
to the anthropoid skull to see in which mould
it is cast. In the adults we find that the
shape of the essential part of the skull — the
part which contains the brain — is masked
by a great bony framework which was formed
during the years of youth to give attachment
to the muscles of mastication. We must,
therefore, measure the skulls of the young, and
in them we find the breadth amounts to eighty

RACIAL CHARACTERS 171

per cent, or more of the length of the skull.
The anthropoids are round-headed, especi-
ally the orangs. When we look more closely
we see that the roundness of the anthropoid
head is altogether different in character from
the roundness of the modern European head.
We see at once that the anthropoid's skull is
wide, because the width is increased at the
price of height ; it gives the impression of
having been compressed from above down-
wards into a bun-shaped form, the width
being thus increased and not the length.
The apparent compression of the human skull
is rather from behind forwards as in round-
headed races of men, or from side to side,
as in long-headed races. Thus we cannot
say that the round type of human head is
more anthropoid than the long one.

When, however, we examine the skulls of
the most ancient men yet discovered, the
evidence is very definite ; all of them have
the long form of head. In the oldest and
most primitive type yet found — the fossil
man of Java — ^the breadth of the skull is
seventy-two or seventy-three per cent, of the
length ; he is long-headed. We note in this
skull, however, a very remarkable feature —
it is flattened or compressed from crown to
base, as we have seen to be the case in anthro-
poid skulls. In another very ancient skull
from Gibraltar we notice this anthropoid
character and also that the breadth is seventy-

172 THE HUMAN BODY

four per cent, of the length. In the Neander-
thal race, which lived in Europe during the
glacial period, the head is also of the long type,
and indeed the length of their skulls is much
above the modern average. The Cro-Magnon
race, whi<;h came long after the Neanderthal
and yet were inhabitants of France before the
glacial period had closed, were remarkably
long-headed. The oldest man yet discovered
in England — ^the Galley Hill man, who also
apparently belongs to the glacial period —
had a remarkably narrow and long head ;
the breadth is only sixty-nine per cent, of its
length. From all these facts we must conclude
that the long head is the older type. Indeed,
all the evidence points to the round form of
skull we have seen in the citizen of Strassburg
as a comparatively recent product in the
evolution of human races. The evolution of
the form of the human skull seems to have
taken place in the following order. The
anthropoid skull, short, wide, flat, seems to be
the oldest form. In the early human stock it
became long, moderately wide, and flattened ;
later it became long, narrow, and high, and
lastly short, wide, and high.

We have been comparing opposite types
of head-form, and we now propose to contrast
the most widely divergent types of mankind.
As one of these we select again the man from
Strassburg, premising that he is of the short-
headed or brachycephalic type, with blonde

RACIAL CHARACTERS 173

hair, blue eyes, and a fair clear skin. Beside
him we propose to place, for purposes of
contrast, a negro from the heart of Africa.
Here I would beg of the reader to break away
from the common habit of speaking and
thinking of various races as high and low.
When we meet the native of the Congo in his
home we find that he does not share our
opinion that we are of a superior race and
type ; indeed, his candid opinion is the
reverse. High and low refers to civilization ;
it does not refer to the human body. When
we have placed a Central European and a
Central African side by side, we see before us
the end stems of the two most divergent
branches of humanity. They are equally
old in type, and we may truthfully say
equally specialized. We believe they have
arisen from a common stock, but that must be
a million of years ago or more. The mere
diversity of their bodily features indicates
an evolutionary period of great length. We
note the difference in their head-form ; the
negro has a long, narrow head ; its cranial
capacity is less, and on the average the brain
is simpler in its pattern. It is the difference
in colour that impresses us most. In the
negro the skin and eyes are laden with black
pigment, which is being constantly absorbed
and constantly renewed. Even the deeper
parts of the body show scattered patches of
pigment. In the Central European there

174. THE HUMAN BODY

are pigment granules in the skin, but the skin
must be cut in fine sections and examined
with the microscope before they are plainly
visible. The contrast in colour in the two
types is so great that it seems scarcely credible
that we a,re dealing with the same species of
being. Indeed, there are many who maintain
that they belong to different species. Yet
we know that intermixture of these two types
produces children which in turn are fertile for
generation after generation.

When, too, we cross from Central Europe to
Central Africa, we see that these two extreme
types of mankind are linked together by all the
intervening shades between fair and dark. In
Southern Europe the skin and hair become
more pigmented ; in Northern Africa the skin
is dark brown or black. Whenever we find
an intermediate series which carries us from
one extreme to the other, we believe that
those extremes may have arisen from a com-
mon stock. We see, too, how the inhabitants
of the same country or even of the same
parish, may show many shades of pigmentation
— but for each country there is a certain
average, and the variation in shade is bounded
by definite limits. When we v/ish to explain
why the Central European is fair and the
Central African is black, we are brought at
once to a dead stop by our ignorance. We
do not know what service pigment performs
in the human body. We cannot suppose

RACIAL CHARACTERS 175

it to be a useless substance. It is true that it
is most developed in those who live in hot
climates, yet the ancient Tasmanians, the
natives of a very temperate climate, were
black. There is no definite proof that negroes
become less black in temperate countries, nor
that fair men become more pigmented in
tropical lands. Yet it seems most reasonable
to suppose that the pigment of the skin does
protect the body from certain rays of the sun.
Anthropologists have always presumed that
the primitive human stock must have been
dark-skinned. Certainly the degree of pig-
mentation seen amongst the great anthropoids
lends support to this theory. The gorilla is
black ; there are various races or varieties
of chimpanzee, and all of them show a
degree of black pigmentation. In one variety
the skin becomes totally black ; in another,
pigmentation of the face and of other parts
is delayed until late in life ; in others the face
never becomes absolutely black. The skin
of the orang is also deeply pigmented, but
the black granules are masked by the presence
of a red elem.ent. The evidence supplied by
anthropoids points to a common stock with
dark pigmented skins. It is very possible,
however, that in the progress of evolution,
the degree of pigmentation has somewhat
increased in the pure negro races, while in the
Central European it has become greatly
diminished. One is led to form such an

176 THE HUMAN BODY

opinion from the skin colour of the natives
of Australia. They have so many primitive
features in the structure of their bodies that
it is also possible that their skin colour is
likewise primitive. Their skins are not so
deeply pigmented as in the typical negro.
On the whole, the evidence points to the stock
from which human races have arisen as having
had brown pigmented skins. The very black
African and very fair European races may
represent comparatively recent products in the
evolution of modern races.

We must return to the consideration of the
African and European types of mankind now
standing before us. We shall admit, I think,
that in character of skull and of brain, and in
colour of skin, the negro shows the older type,
but in the character of his hair this is not so.
The woolly hair, coiled naturally into little
isolated locks, is unlike the hair of ape or man.
It is a feature of the negro or negroid races,
and was evolved with them. The straight
black or wavy brown hair of the European
appears to be more primitive in character.
There are two other features of the negro's
face which appear to be specializations or
departures from the primitive type. The
thick everted lips are very different from the
thin straight lips of the anthropoid apes.
The thin European lips seem a more primitive
type, and yet when sections are made of the
lips of Europeans and Africans certain features

RACIAL CHARACTERS 177

are seen which make us hesitate to endorse this
opinion. Then, again, there are the characters
of the forehead. It is true that in the West
Coast of Africa we meet natives with
prominent supraorbital ridges and receding
foreheads. In the typical African negro this
is not the case ; the forehead as a rule is high,
narrow, often prominent or bulging, and the
supraorbital ridges are moderately or slightly
developed — distinctly less prominent than in
the European. There is not a shadow of
doubt that the stock from which modern man
is descended had great supraorbital ridges.
They are still to be found in a fairly primitive
form in native Australians, but to see them
at their best one must examine the skulls of
those ancient Europeans — the Neanderthal
race. In the gorilla especially, and also
in the chimpanzee, these supraorbital ridges
form prominent bony ledges or shelves above
their sunken eyes. The typical negro is desti-
tute of great supraorbital ridges, which are
primitive features.

When we compare the negro and European
nose it may be a question as to which is the
more primitive. Neither the one nor the
other is like the nose of the anthropoid, and
yet of the two, the sharp, narrow, prominent
nose of the European, with its high bridge and
compressed wings, must be admitted to be the
more specialized type. If, however, we leave
the Congo Valley and make our way to

M

178 THE HUMAN BODY

Egypt along the Valley of the Nile, we shall
meet with various negro tribes in whom the
nose is narrow and prominent and almost
European in shape.

We have reason to believe that the shape of
the nose does depend to a considerable degree
on the development of the teeth and jaws.
A long, prominent and narrow nose is usually
part of a face in which the palate is narrow or
contracted and in which the jaws have grown
in length rather than in width and strength.
In the ancient inhabitants of Europe we find
the jaws and teeth well and regularly developed
and the nose of fair width. In modern
Europeans, especially in those with long heads,
we find a tendency to an irregular development
of the jaws and to an elongation and narrowing
of the face, with the result that the nose also
is rendered sharper and more prominent.
The jaws and cheeks have retreated and left
the nose as a narrow prominent organ on the
face of the typical European. In Central
Africa we find other tendencies at work ; the
teeth are big, white, and regularly set in
well-developed jaws. The face is broad rather
than long. The jaws may be so well grown
as actually to give the individual the appear-
ance of having a muzzle. The nose is
correspondingly flat and wide. In brief, I
conceive it possible that the nose of the
negro might assume a European form were his
teeth and jaws to undergo those changes

RACIAL CHARACTERS 179

which are apparently occurring amongst the
civilized peoples of Europe and America.

There are other features of the body we
ought to contrast in the European and
African — the longer forearm and leg of the
latter, the absence of calf and longer heel, the
different type of ear, but enough has been said
to give some idea of the chief bodily features
in which one race of mankind differs from
another.

In Eastern Asia we find another distinctive
type of modern man. We may take the
Chinaman as a representative and place him
with the Central European for comparison.
They are both short-headed or brachycephalic,
but their heads are essentially different in
shape. The Mongolian head is really round
or ball-shaped. The skin is pigmented —
less so than in negro races, but more so than
in European. The hair is strong, lank and
black. The stature is short — perhaps two
inches less than in the European, the shorten-
ing being due not to a diminution in length of
trunk so much as to a shortening of the legs.
In size of brain there is nothing to choose
between the two types. The chief difference
lies in the face. The cheek bones are promi-
nent, the teeth good, and the jaws strong in
the Chinaman, but we note at once that the
supraorbital ridges are less developed than in
the European. In this the Mongol resembles
the negro, but his forehead is wide, not

180 THE HUMAN BODY

narrow as in the negro. The essential
Mongolian feature is the nose — its low sunken
bridge over which one eye can almost see its
neighbour. With the depression of the nose
a peculiar fold of skin — the epicanthic fold-
is drawn like a curtain above the inner angle
of the eye. The eyes seem set at an oblique
angle, a feature which Chinese artists love to
emphasize. The Mongolian face, when com-
pared with the European, is remarkably flat
and shield-like. The forehead, the prominent
cheek bones, the sunken nose and well-
developed jaws all take a part in forming this
facial plateau.

Thus we find contrasted types of man have
been evolved at divergent points or centres of
the old world — in Europe, in Africa, in Asia.
When we remember that the skulls and limb
bones of the inhabitants of Egypt have
changed remarkably little during 5,000 years
we must conclude that evolution amongst
human races does not proceed quickly. One
finds the same form of skull among English-
men of to-day, as occurred in the men who
lived in Britain many thousands of years ago.
If then, we believe in evolution, it becomes
evident that the well marked differences
which characterize the races of Europe, Asia,
and Africa, must be the result of a very long
period of time.

All the factors which have operated to
produce characteristic racial features we do not

RACIAL CHARACTERS 181

know, but there is one with which every one is
familiar. If the reader has had the fortune
to be born and bred in the country he will
remember perhaps that as a boy he was pre-
pared to defend the claims of his fellow-
parishioners against those of neighbouring
parishes. In after years when he had left
his home and taken up his abode in a strange
town or country, he has probably observed
that a man of his ovm county or town has
some indefinite claim upon him over another
man. He is inclined to trust a member of his
own nationality rather than that of another.
The feeling or prejudice, which subconsciously
influences him, is the backbone of nationality ;
it is the moving force which welds together a
community. It is that inborn feeling to
which the name of race prejudice or race caste
has been given. That is the feeling expressed
from the politician's or economist's point of
view, but it has also a meaning for the biolo-
gist. The same mental trait, which we see
operating in a village, and which we see bind-
ing a scattered people into a nation, is, I
think, the innate mental character which
binds the animals of one species or of one
variety together, and it nourishes and streng-
thens the community which it binds together,
and at the same time sets that community at
enmity with every other community which
lies outside its borders. In such communities
new physical types may be evolved, and we

182 THE HUMAN BODY

can see how a sense of caste may keep
the type pure, and how pride of race may
lead to the expansion of territory and the
propagation of a racial type.

The sense of caste or race seems to have
played a great part in the separation of man-
kind into the numerous races which are now
scattered over the earth. Unless it be
present no community or nation could extend
its borders without losing its individuality
in neighbouring peoples. The Portuguese
settlements in Africa and in the far East
during the sixteenth century offer us an
example in point. So little was their sense
of race developed that in a few genera-
tions the blood of the original settlers was
swamped by the blood of native races.
Anglo-Saxons have succeeded as colonists,
and not the least element of their success
is due to their highly developed sense of
race. Cosmopolitanism is a condition in which
the prejudices relating to race have been
eradicated.

CHAPTER XII

BODILY FEATURES AS INDEXES OF MENTAL
CHARACTER

There is a general consensus of opinion that
those who pretend to read character from the
shape of the head — phrenologists — and from
the lines of the hand — palmists — boast of a
knowledge they do not actually possess. In
the course of this chapter we shall see what
grounds there are for supposing that the head
or hand can guide us to the character of their
owner. There is one part of the body, how-
ever, we are constantly appealing to, and
ever drawing inferences from — sometimes
rightly, sometimes wrongly, and that is the
face. IMost of us believe that the face may
show what the mind is really trying to hide.
It is not the bony ground-work of the face
that guides us, it is the expression we note.
Now the skin of the face has been furnished
with a special means for reflecting our mental
states. It is under the control of an elaborate
system of muscles, regulated by a special
nerve — the facial or seventh cranial nerve. Its
vessels are most delicately controlled by the

183

184 THE HUMAN BODY

sympathetic nerve system over which the
will has no power. The sympathetic system
responds to our emotions until experience
and years have blunted the delicacy of the
adjustment. In anger or in fright the vessels
react to the nerve centres which control them ;
they become restricted in anger, giving the
face a blanched or livid appearance ; in shame
or in joy the vessels dilate and our faces
blush or flush. The faces of men who are
exposed to all kinds of weather turn ruddy in
the course of years, because the vaso-motor
or vessel-regulating mechanism becomes ex-
hausted.

As a means of expression the vaso-motor
mechanism is a minor one ; the facial muscles
form the chief. A pair of these muscles —
the frontal — form a sheet beneath the skin
of the forehead ; they can lift up the eyebrows,
puckering the skin into folds which cross the
brow. As long as the skin retains its youth-
ful elasticity, and especially in those who live
placid lives, free from pain or care, the wrinkles
disappear as soon as the muscles cease to
strain, but in most men by the age of forty,
the wrinkles on the forehead have become
permanent marks. The action of the frontal
muscles can be reversed. If the skin of the
eyebrows is fixed by bringing into action the
muscle which encircles each orbit, the frontal
muscles then exert their power on the scalp
and move it forward. Another pair — ^the

BODILY INDEXES OF CHARACTER 185

occipital — are attached to the scalp behind
and act as opponents in moving the scalp
back. Many people lose, or never acquire,
the power of voluntarily throwing these
muscles into action. The muscles of the
scalp are especially well developed in apes,
and every one must have noted how freely
these animals can use them as a means of
threatening their foes or welcoming their
friends.

The eyes are full of expression and yet as the
portrait painter knows well — it is difficult to
analyse the various points on which we form
our judgment. In some, the eyes seem large,
in others small, but the difference is really due
to the amount exposed by the lids, for as
regards actual size our eyes are the least
variable structures of our body. The upper
lid is the real movable curtain of the eye.
A special muscle within the orbit lifts it up
and keeps it up so long as we are awake ; in
sleep it passes out of action. In alert men
this muscle is strenuously in action. The
upper eyelid is also provided with an involun-
tary muscle, which, like the arteries of the
face, is regulated by the sympathetic system
and alters the lid with each change in the
emotional state. In fright our eyes seem to
start from our heads, so vigorously do these
involuntary muscles act. Soon after adult
life is reached the eyelids lose their delicate
outlines and the skin round the orbits becomes

186 THE HUMAN BODY

wrinkled and often loose. The wrinkling is
due to the orbital muscle which forms a loop-
shaped sheet of muscle round each orbit.
The muscle is primarily for closing the lids
and protecting the eyes ; we feel it come into
action when we pass from the shade into the
strong sunlight. It draws the eyebrows over
the eyes and thus shades them. It will be
observed that the skin on the cheek and temple,
and on the outer side of the eyes is thrown into
radiating folds or wrinkles when the orbital
muscles are in action. As the skin loses its
elasticity these wrinkles become permanent
and form " crow's feet."

As a means of expression the muscles of the
nose are not of importance. On the wing of the
nose are found very reduced representatives of
those strong and active muscles which dilate
and close the nostrils of the winded horse.
We speak of " turning our noses up " ; we
have no muscles specially provided for this
purpose — ^but there is on each side a muscle
with the unsatisfactory name of compressor
nasi, which has the power of drawing the
adjacent skin towards the ridge of the nose — -
a means of expressing contempt.

The most elaborate mechanism for expres-
sion is found in connexion with the lips and
mouth. The lips are used in speech and change
with every form of emotion. As one may guess
from the manifold movements of the lips, the
arrangement of the muscles within them — the

BODILY INDEXES OF CHARACTER 187

orbicular musculature of the mouth — is most
complex. Special muscles are provided for
lifting the upper lip and depressing the lower ;
each angle of the mouth has its " levator "
and its " depressor." In some, the levator is
the domxinating muscle and the corners of the
mouth are drawn upwards into a suggested
smile, just as in others the corners droop under
the influence of the depressor muscles. While
the skin is loosely attached on the face and
cheeks, over the lips and in their neighbour-
hood it is closely bound down. The line
"which marks the junction of the fixed labial
skin with the free skin of the cheeks corre-
sponds to a furrow which passes obliquely
downwards from each side of the nose until
it passes beyond and outside the angles of
the mouth, thus separating the upper lip
from the cheek. These naso-labial folds often
deepen with age, becoming very marked in
some people. They are caused by the muscles
which act on the upper lip ; in laughing, for
instance, the curtain-like upper lip is drawn,
partly beneath the skin of the cheeks along the
lines of the right and left naso-labial folds.
With age the lips invariably lose their sharp
outlines and their elasticity ; in some they
become drawn and tight under the continual
contraction of the orbicular muscle situated
within them ; in others the muscle becomes
relaxed and the mouth becomes loose and
partly open or the lower lip hangs. The skin

188 THE HUMAN BODY

over the chin has a curious muscle which acts
on it, sometimes named the " shaving "
muscle, as it is employed to steady the skin
of the chin against the razor. Its real use
seems to consist in removing food from the
recess behind the lower lip. The muscles
of the cheek — ^the buccinator muscles — so
called because they are seen in action in the
puffed-out cheeks of the trumpeter, are also
used in mastication, to place the food between
the chewing crowns of the teeth. The muscles
of the lips and cheek are employed in speech
as well as in expression.

A wide sheet of the facial musculature — the
platysma myoides — extends into the subcu-
taneous tissue of the neck. Under normal
circumstances this muscle acts on the mouth
and jaw, drawing them downwards and back-
wards. When an effort is made with teeth
clenched and all the muscles of the body strain-
ing, the action of the platysma is reversed ;
its fixed point is in the face, and the muscle
stretches and tightens the skin of the neck.
The significance of this action is unknown.
The platysma is the remains of a system of
musculature which forms a complete sheet
under the skin of the trunk of many mammals.
It endows the skin with mobility. Every one
knows how the horse can twitch the summer
flies from its sides. In man and the anthro-
poid apes the muscles of the face and neck are
all that remains of a great sheet, which in

BODILY INDEXES OF CHARACTER 189

some animals is seen to be spread under the
skin of the whole trunk.

The facial muscles of man are remarkable
for their degree of differentiation and for their
relatively small size. The great anthropoids
have really the same muscles but have them
somewhat differently arranged and somewhat
less distinctly separated from one another. In
the gibbon and monkeys of the old and new
worlds the facial system becomes still simpler
and at the same time more robust. It is a
remarkable fact that the facial muscles of
primates keep pace in their evolution with the
brain ; as the convolutions increase in number
and capacity, the muscles of the face become
smaller and more finely differentiated. The
study of anatomy therefore supports the
experience of our every-day life that much
can be learned of mental character and
capacity from the muscles of the face. It is
clear that they are evolved as the servants
of the brain. The human brain, however, has
the power of mastering and masking true feel-
ings, and hence it is also true that a smiling
face may mask a sad heart.

The story of the evolution of the muscles of
the face is a very wonderful one. It has already
been said that the whole of the facial system
is supplied by the seventh cranial nerve. In
fishes and lower vertebrates the seventh is
the nerve of the second or hyoid branchial
arch, supplying the muscles of that arch ; in

190 THE HUMAN BODY

the human embryo the nerve hes within the
hyoid arch. It is from this arch that the gill-
cover and its muscles are developed in fishes.
Now it is a remarkable thing that the muscles
of the face should be supplied by the nerve
of the gill-cover arch and still more remarkable
that the muscles of the face should first appear
in, and be produced from this arch. Arising
over the side of the arch they spread out under
the skin of the face and take up their final
position round the eyes, nose, mouth and ear.
All the links in the chain of evolution we
do not yet know, but we can only explain the
nerve supply and origin of the facial muscles
by supposing that they have been modified
somehow from the actively moving respira-
tory gill-cover of fishes. It is worthy of note
that when we are winded we do bring the
platysma of our necks actively into use during
forced respirations.

The external ear also arises in connexion
with the branchial system. The ear passage
represents the upper end of the first cleft and
the ear is developed round it from a series of
outgrowths. The muscles which move it are
derived from the same sheet as the muscles of
expression. In man these muscles are small,
often vestigial. Besides very minute muscles
which are situated on the ear itself there
are three muscles which act on it as a whole
— one which can pull it upwards, another
forwards and a third backwards. In a

BODILY INDEXES OF CHARACTER 191

few individuals these muscles may actually
move the ear at will but they cannot really
be called muscles of expression in man.
In the great anthropoids these muscles
are as much reduced as in man ; in the
orang they are even more so, for in that
animal the outer ear is of very small size and
closely applied to the head. In monkeys
the muscles are larger and the ear can be
moved, but not with that flexibility which is
characteristic of such animals as the doff and
horse ; in which the ears are truly organs of
expression as well as of hearing. When a
monkey is angry it draws its ears back-
wards.

I am not aware of any one having studied
the external ear as a clue to character, nor is
there any fact which leads us to suppose such
a study would be profitable. On the other
hand it has been alleged that the ear may
serve as an index to that type of man who is re-
garded as a " degenerate," an individual who
is lacking in self-control and who is inclined
to sacrifice the good of the community to
selfish and evil passions. Certain features,
such as abnormal crumpling up or infolding
of the ear, and the absence of a lobule have been
supposed to indicate such a tendency. The
evidence on the whole is against the theory
that an inferior nature is stamped by certain
traits of the ear or any other part of the body,
but an enquiry into this matter is attended

192 THE HUMAN BODY

with great difficulty owing to the extraordinary
variability of the outer ear.

It is a remarkable fact that the outer ear-
of the great anthropoids and man are similar in
type. In all of them the ear has lost its tip or
point ; only a remnant may be seen towards
the upper part of the posterior border on the
inturned margin of the ear. There is a distinct
sexual difference ; the ears of women are
smaller and more folded than those of men and
the lobule is usually larger. There is an age
change ; after fifty the ear begins to enlarge.
The ear also varies with race, one could tell
a Bushman by his small ears, with the hinder
margins curved over to form a wide welt.
In other races the ears are large and project
from the sides of the head, as is invariably
the case in the chimpanzee. Indeed it is
possible in every community to see some
individuals who in type of ear recall the re-
duced form seen in the orang, some the large
outstanding ear of the chimpanzee, and
some the medium sized ears of the gorilla
closely appressed to the head. The degenera-
tion of the external ear in man and anthropoids
is another result of the upright posture ; they
turn their heads, in place of their ears, in the
direction from which a sound appears to
come.

We have already seen that there is no
correspondence between the functions of the
various parts of the brain, so far as we yet

BODILY INDEXES OF CHARACTER 193

know them and the overlying parts of the
head to which phrenologists have assigned
definite functions (p. 32). It is possible,
however, that certain features of the head
may be associated with definite mental
tendencies. Every one of us has a difficulty
in believing that intellectual ability can be
associated with a receding forehead, yet the
experience of daily life convinces most of us
that the forehead is a most unreliable sign.
Strongly marked eyebrow ridges are usually
significant of energy and strength, and one
can understand such an associationship, for
beetling brows are usually a sign of muscular
development. The chin is another feature
which also seems significant of character ;
a man with a pronounced chin is usually also
one of determination. The chin is sometimes
defined as a character of man ; rightly it
should be regarded as a character of modern
man. It has already been pointed out that
the mandible is made up of two parts — a
part for carrying the roots of the teeth — the
alveolar part — and a part which forms the
frame-work of the floor of the mouth. Now
in primitive races the teeth are large and so
is the alveolar part of the mandible ; it actu-
ally projects beyond the chin, which is then said
to be receding. If we supposed that the teeth
were to become reduced in size and perhaps
in number, and there are good grounds for
supposing civilization has produced this effect,

194 THE HUMAN BODY

the alveolar part of the jaw will recede and
leave the chin prominent. Hence the chin is
never well marked in primitive races with large
teeth and mouths — such as the natives of
Australia, of Africa and of New Guinea.
There is probably also a positive growth of the
chin forwards in connexion with the muscles
of the tongue and of the floor of the mouth.
We thus see that a prominent chin marks as
it were a step in evolution, and may indicate
a special mental trait — such as determination.
We come now to deal with the hand, which
has been exploited by one class of men as a
guide to human character and extolled by
another class as the most remarkable of man's
characters. The hand is beyond doubt a
very wonderful mechanism, but it is not neces-
sary to remind the reader that the hand is only
the passive instrument of that much more
marvellous mechanism — the human brain.
Professor Klaatsch is perfectly right when he
maintains that the human hand is modelled on
a most primitive and antique type. It retains
the five digits of the earliest of mammals;
even in some of the lowest of these the first
digit is modified to a thumb. The anatomical
difierences between the hand of man and of
the gorilla are really not great ones. As
regards function, that is a different matter ;
the hand of the gorilla is heavy and clumsy
because its chief function is to support the
weight of the body during progression. In the

BODILY INDEXES OF CHARACTER 195

chimpanzee and orang the palm and fingers
are very long and narrow ; they are capable
of grasping and supporting the animal from
the thickest branches. In man the hands have
been set free from the purposes of locomotion
and have become specialized as manipulative
instruments. In swinging from branch to
branch the anthropoids use their fingers as
hooks ; their thumbs serve only for the minor
purposes of grasping and lifting small objects.
Hence in all the great anthropoids the thumbs
are small ; in the orang they are so reduced
that one may say that they are vestigial.
The nail is often absent from the thumb of the
orang so small is the last phalanx or joint.
The great size of the human thumb will be
apparent when it is contrasted with the middle
digit. In man it usually measures 68 to 70
per cent, of the length of the middle digit ;
in the gorilla, which has the most human-like
hand, it is equal to 43 per cent, of the length
of the middle digit. The thumb of man is
characterized by its highly developed muscu-
lature. The special flexor or bender of the
thumb is a large and distinct muscle ; in
anthropoids it is so reduced as to be almost a
vestige ; in the gibbon it is also large but
it is conjoined with the flexor of the index
finger. In man the great flexor of the thumb
is undergoing a progressive change ; in the
great anthropoids a retrogressive one.

There is also a new extensor muscle on the

196 THE HUMAN BODY

human thumb. There are three segments
for the thumb, each of which has an extensor
muscle in man. In all apes the middle seg-
ment has no extensor, with one important
exception. In a small proportion of gorillas
we find the rudiment of such a muscle ; it is
being evolved as a slip which is separating off
from the extensor muscle of the segment or
joint at the base of the thumb. The human
hand then has in a recent state of evolution
undergone certain changes, especially as
regards the size and strength of the thumb,
but in its essential design and in the number
of its parts it is really a very old structure.
A vestige of a former bone is seen in the wrist
of man. Between the upper and lower rows
of carpal bones of the wrists there is seen a
central bone in the wrists of monkeys. The
central bone is also present in the orang and
it appears during the development of the
human hand but it soon disappears. Traces
of it can be frequently seen. A similar fate
has overtaken this bone in gorillas and chim-
panzees.

The long and narrow hand is often regarded
as showing breeding when it occurs in man-
kind ; we have seen that the orang and chim-
panzee have hands of this nature. When, too,
we come to study the lines of the palm — the
lines to which astrological names have been
applied since ancient days — ^we find that man
is not peculiar. When the thumb is flexed

BODILY INDEXES OF CHARACTER 197

on the palm a fold appears between the ball of
the thumb and the rest of the palm ; the crease
which marks the site of the fold is known as
the " line of life." If the thumb and little
finger are brought in contact, another fold
appears on the centre of the palm running
from the wrist towards the base of the middle
finger ; it is the " line of Fate." When the
fingers are flexed two folds appear across the
palm ; the one nearest the base of the fingers
is the " line of the Heart ; " the further trans-
verse line is that of the " Head ; " both it will
be observed are foldings of the skin of the
palm in front of the knuckle joints. These
creases or lines in the skin are exactly of
the same nature as the folds which appear in
front of the elbows and behind the knees
in the sleeves and trousers of the seden-
tary student. They indicate the manner in
which the thumb and fingers are flexed on
the palm. Palmistry is really a childish game
of make-believe. It must not be forgotten
that monkeys which we count quite low in
the primate scale have the " girdle of Venus "
— and well marked " marriage lines " ; the
lines of our hands are old-time hieroglyphics.
Those on the soles of our feet are also inter-
esting. They are arranged in a similar man-
ner to those of the palm, but only vestiges
of them are left on the human feet at birth
owing to the great modification which
man's foot has passed through, to make it

198 THE HUMAN BODY

suitable as an instrument of plantigrade
progression.

We have already seen that the lines of the
palm of the hand are formed exactly where
the skin and tissues are folded when the
fingers are flexed and when an object such as
a cricket ball is grasped. The lines appear
on the palm of the hand of the foetus, exactly
right in position and direction, before hand
movements have actually occurred. That is
a very remarkable fact. It could be explained
if we suppose that such folds were first pro-
duced by use and in course of time such
adaptations have become inherited. What
are the means by which such functional
characters become inherited ? The foetus
in which we see those lines on the palm has
already the ova or spermatozoa set aside
for another generation ; we cannot conceive
a means by which the movements of the
hand can influence the ova which are to give
rise to the next generation The manner
in which acquired characters become heredi-
tary is a great and unexplained puzzle. We
must believe, however, that under certain
circumstances " acquired " characters are in-
herited, otherwise how shall we explain the
appearance of the flexion lines on the palm
before the hand is actually in use ?

If we cannot use the lines of the palm as
guides to the future we can certainly establish
the identity of an individual from the patterns

BODILY INDEXES OF CHARACTER 199

made by the papillae on the finger-tips. The
papillse of the palm and flexor surfaces of the
fingers are prominent and arranged in lines
with the furrows between the Hnes. As Pro-
fessor Hepburn has shown, the papillae and
furrows are designed to give security of grasp.
On the summit of each papilla opens the duct
of a sweat gland to keep the skin moist and so
prevent objects from slipping from the grasp.
On the fleshy bulbous end of each digit it
will be seen that the rows of papillae form
definite patterns. There are three common
forms (1) a loop, (2) an arch, (3) a spiral or
whorl. Forms are also seen in which these
three types are more or less combined.
If the reader will glance at his fingers, exam-
ining the digits from thumb to little finger,
first of the right hand, then of the left,
examples of all three forms will probably be
observed, but he will not find anywhere in
the world another individual who shows
these forms occurring in exactly the same
sequence. The patterns can be used as let-
ters of an alphabet, and any one who has left
his finger prints has left an unmistakable
signature behind him. I look on my own
fingers and see that the patterns come in the

following order :-

—

Fore-

Middle-

Rmg-

Little-

Thumb.

finger.

finger.

finger.

finger.

Bight Hand loop.

arch.

loop.

loop.

loop.

■Left Hand loop.

arch.

loop.

loop.

loop.

200 THE HUMAN BODY

On the fingers of anthropoids the whorl is
the predominant type, while in monkeys the
patterns are of an oval and more primitive
form.

On the palm of the human hand remnants
of certain primitive patterns may be seen.
One of these is situated on the hypo-thenar
eminence — the elevation on the palm opposite
the ball of the thumb. Traces of three
patterns may be found on the palm at the
roots of the fingers. These patterns on the
palm are traces of certain elevations or
pads which are well seen in the palm of
the monkey's hand.

CHAPTER XIII

SKIN, HAIR, AND SENSE ORGANS OF THE
HUMAN BODY

The reader may think that I am grouping
together very dissimilar structures in this
chapter. The eye, the ear, the nose, the hair,
the skin, the nails, the teeth, sweat, milk
and sebaceous glands, although very different
in appearance and function, have one charac-
ter in common ; all are developed from the
covering or epidermis of the embryo. We
have been in the habit from childhood of
thinking of the skin as merely a covering or
clothing for the body. When, however, we
study the skin or surface covering of even the
lowest animal we find it is triple in its
function : it is a covering, a sense organ, and
a gland. We have already seen how a strip
of the embryonic covering is modified and
enclosed to form the beginning of the spinal
cord and brain. Along the gums a fold of the
skin grows down to provide the enamel crowns
of the teeth. The teeth are really incrusta-
tions formed round skin papillae. During
the fourth and fifth months sprouts of the

201

202 THE HUMAN BODY

epithelial cells of the surface layer grow into
the true skin and form sweat glands ; seba-
ceous glands which are developed at the roots
of hairs and supply a natural oil for the hair
and skin are formed in a similar manner.
The milk glands we have also seen arise along
a ridge on the skin ; they appear to have been
evolved out of sweat glands. On the tips
of the digits the epithelial cells of the skin are
modified to form nails. The inner ear, which
gives rise to a most intricate arrangement of
parts for the transformation of sound waves
into nerve impulses arises as a minute pocket
of skin which sinks into the head until its
mouth on the surface is closed. In some
fishes the opening persists, the fish retain-
ing in adult life an arrangement which is seen
only in the embryo of higher vertebrate ani-
mals. The olfactory membrane also arises
as a pair of skin pockets, which become
enclosed by the parts which form the nose.
Some of the epithelial cells of the olfactory
membrane are so constituted as to be affected
by odoriferous substances floating in the air.
In the tongue certain cells are sensitized for
taste ; in the skin others are modified for
touch. The lens of the eye, which focuses
images on the retina, also arises as an epithelial
ingrowth from the skin. It is even liable
to the horny or corneous change which occurs
in skin epithelium ; when the lens becomes
old, it often becomes corneous and opaque.

SKIN, HAIR, AND SENSE ORGANS 203

giving rise to the condition of cataract.
Thus it will be seen that the skin gives origin
to a most complex series of structures, but
we must suppose, from the facts of develop-
ment just narrated, that man is the descendant
of a stock which had a skin, simple in structure
but complex in function, which served as a
nerve system, gland system, as well as a body
covering.

The anthropoid apes which in all structural
features come nearest to man, have their
bodies covered with hair, all except the soles
of the feet and palms of the hand. We notice,
however, that on the cheeks and forehead the
hairs are short and not so apparent. How
is it, then, that man is almost hairless and
is thus so different to the anthropoids ? We
infer that man comes of a stock which was as
hairy as the anthropoids. Hair roots are
developed all over his body, except on the
palms and soles. At the seventh and eighth
months of fcetal life the body is clad with a
fine downy covering — the lanugo. In the
adult, especially in some individuals, the
body becomes covered with rough hair. In
some races, such as the Ainus of Japan, the
hairy covering of the body is very apparent.
In other races, such as the African negro, the
skin is almost hairless. Occasionally we see
human freaks in which the face and head,
or even the whole body, becomes as thickly
covered with hair as a terrier. Indeed, when

204, THE HUMAN BODY

we examine carefully the arrangement or
" lie " of the hair on the upper extremities
of man we see that in the upper arm it is
directed downwards to the elbow while on the
extensor surface of the forearm it slopes up
to the elbow. In the upper extremity of the
anthropoid apes the hair is also arranged in
this manner. We cannot explain all these
facts unless we suppose that modern man has
come of a hairy stock with the hair arranged
exactly as we see it in anthropoids. We
do not as yet know how the hairless condition
came about, but there are several lines of
suggestive enquiry. Professor Elliot Smith
has observed that there is a correlation
between the evolution of the human brain
and the disappearance of a hairy covering.
The brain is linked up by sensory nerves with
every papilla of the skin : the more nude and
thin the skin the greater its sensitiveness and
the greater the number of messages sent to the
brain. It is, therefore, possible that the nude
condition of our skin and the size of our brain
are connected in some way. We have still
to explain why and how the hair has dis-
appeared. We have already seen that many
points in the structure of man have been
evolved by a retention of a foetal condition.
Now foetal anthropoids are hairless until the
third month before birth ; if the foetal condi-
tion then were to be retained or prolonged a
hairless condition would result. The growth

SKIN, HAIR, AND SENSE ORGANS 205

of the hair, too, is regulated by a mechanism
which we do not know fully, but the secretion
of the thyroid has a distinct influence on the
nourishment of the skin and the gro^vth of
the hair. The deposition and absorption of
fat is also influenced by thyroid secretion.
The healthy human baby differs from that of
the anthropoid in being plump, owing to the
thick layer of fat which lies beneath the skin ;
it is also hairless. The two conditions are
probably correlated, and the mechanism which
brings the change about is probably a func-
tion of the thyroid. We have every reason
to suppose that civilization — or rather an
ample command of food all the year round — ■
was acquired by man at a much earlier period
in the history of the earth than we have
hitherto thought. The human foetus would
be much more richly nourished when such
conditions came into existence. The glands
of internal secretion, such as the thyroid,
would probably be affected. It is possible then
that in man's hairless condition we see one
of the first effects of civilization on the human
race.

There is also another factor at work. In
our likes and dislikes we do take the condition
of hair into account, and in this way, as
Darwin pointed out, individuals with hairless
bodies, but with rich heads of hair, may have
had the preference in sexual choice. We have
already alluded to the fact that the sexual

206 THE HUMAN BODY

glands have a marked influence on the growth
of hair which takes place at puberty.

The evolution of hair and of nails hardly
comes within the compass of a book dealing
only with the human body. The hairy covering
of the body became evolved when the mam-
malian stock was emerging from a very primi-
tive scale-covered ancestry. The hairs were
at first produced under the scales, as may
still be seen in some low forms of mammals,
such as the armadillo and scaly ant-eater.
In our bodies it may still be observed that
the hair roots are arranged in definite groups
of 3, 4 or 5, and it is supposed that such groups
represent the hairs which appeared beneath
one scale. The evolution of our nails also
covers a long period of time. The claw-like
nails of the primitive mammals first assumed
a flattened shape in the thumb and great toe
of the earliest primates. Whenever the
digits became truly grasping organs the .nails
became flattened. In the monkeys of the
old and new world the nails are still narrow
and much curved from side to side, especially
on the little finger and toe. In the great
anthropoids they become more human in
shape. Long and narrow nails in man,
much curved from side to side, are really
anthropoid in character. Nails then are not
an especial human feature, they were evi-
dently evolved long before the higher pri-
mates broke up into the present families.

SKIN, HAIR, AND SENSE ORGANS 207

The little toe especially, and also the corre-
sponding finger, often show signs of retrogres-
sion. Not only are their segments or phal-
anges small, but the one on which the nail
is set may fail to be separated from the middle
phalanx. The muscles of the fifth digit are
often diminished in size and even one or more
of them may be reduced to a mere fibrous
cord. The nail of the fifth digit often reverts
to the claw-like form seen in the very lowest
primates.

To appreciate certain features of the organ
of taste, it is necessary to mention the arrange-
ment of parts within the mouth and throat.
We are accustomed to think of the tongue
as a flat movable structure in the floor of the
mouth. When, however, special means are
taken to study the tongue in the living it is
seen to be made up of two surfaces or parts,
one situated in the floor of the mouth, and a
posterior or deep part which looks backwards
into the throat or pharynx. The part of the
tongue within the mouth is covered with
rough papillae, and is used to move the food
during mastication. As long as the food
rests on this part of the tongue we still retain
control over it ; when, however, it passes
backwards into the throat and touches the
pharyngeal part of the tongue, it passes beyond
our control and we must perforce swallow
it. The front or mouth part of the tongue we
may call the voluntary area ; the posterior.

208 THE HUMAN BODY

deep or pharyngeal part the involuntary.
Now at the line where these two areas of
the tongue meet there is set a row of special
papillae. On these papillae certain groups of
cells (taste buds) are placed, and are linked
up with the ninth cranial or gustatory nerve.
When food comes in contact with these
papillae we experience the full sensation of
taste. Before it can really come in complete
contact with the papillae the food has to cross
the border between the voluntary and involun-
tary parts of the tongue where the taste
papillae are set. You see how cunningly na-
ture can set a trap ; she neither permits
you to waste food nor to neglect the needs
of the body ; you have to swallow food and
thus supply the needs of the body before the
taste can be really enjoyed. In this respect
we are in the same position as other mammals.
The manner in which the olfactory sense
organ is developed has been already alluded
to. Mention was also made on a former
page (26) of the fact that the olfactory nerves
were the only ones connected with the cerebral
hemispheres, and that there is every reason
for supposing that those great masses of
nerve tissue which constitute the main mass
of the human brain originally arose in con-
nexion with the sense of smell. In mam-
mals generally every one has observed that
the nose is the dominant sense organ. It is
plain that a dog's highest mental joys are

SKIN, HAIR, AND SENSE ORGANS 209

smell memories. In the higher primates,
especially in the civilized races of mankind,
the sense of smell has fallen into a minor place
among our special senses. We have no words
to express our sensations of smell, and yet
many of our most realistic memories of child-
hood are often associated with some impression
which reached us first through the nose. The
olfactory sense cells are situated only in the
roof and upper part of the nasal cavities ; we
must sniff in order that the air inspired may
come in contact with the sensory membrane.

In the human nose there still remains a
trace of a peculiar outpost of the organ of
smell. In herbivorous animals, like the sheep
or ox, it is manifestly advantageous that the
odour of each mouthful of grass should pass
into the nose so as to give warning when a
noxious plant has entered. Two openings
on the roof of the mouth — the naso -palatine —
are situated on the palate, just behind the
upper gum. Above the openings, on each
side of the septum of the nose, is placed a
scroll of cartilage containing a detached part
of the olfactory mucous membrane — a minute
or secondary nose to sample the odours
which escape into the nose from each mouth-
ful of food. This little nose is named the
organ of Jacobson, after the anatomist who
discovered it. These openings on the roof
of man's mouth are now closed, but they are
clearly represented bj'" vestiges, and so are the

210 THE HUMAN BODY

scrolls of cartilage and the detached piece of
olfactory membrane. In the anthropoids the
organ is also vestigial. How are we to
explain these things ?

It would take us too far afield to describe
the structure and mechanism of the organ
of hearing. The manner in which the inner
ear arises as a sac has been mentioned, but
nothing was then said of the very important
fact that in its beginning the inner ear was
double in function. It not only served as an
organ of hearing, but also as one of balancing.
This double function it has retained in all
vertebrates and a very beautiful mechanism
— consisting of three semi-circular canals-
is attached to the inner ear, which informs the
brain of the movements and position of the
head and body. When these canals are
destroyed by disease we lose the power of
balancing our bodies when we move.

At the end of the ear passage is set a
membranous drum which vibrates with the
waves of sound. The waves are conveyed
to the inner ear by three small bones — ^the
hammer, the anvil and the stirrup. The
history of these bones is strange. The
hammer was at an early stage of the evolution
of mammals a part of the lower jaw ; the
anvil was the bone on the base of the skull
with which it articulated. When mastication
and molar teeth v/ere evolved in the ancestry
of mammals a new joint was formed in the

SKIN, HAIR, AND SENSE ORGANS 211

lower jaw, and these two bones — the hammer
and anvil — were taken into the service of the
ear.

All these things sound too much like a
romance. Yet what will the reader think when
he comes to consider the human eye ? Not
that the human eye is peculiar ; it is made
of the same parts as that of the fish ; it is
the human brain which makes the human
eye a source of joy and knowledge. We may
marvel over the evolutions of the sense of
sight and explain it as best we may ; as
regards the facts of its development in the
embryo they are comparatively simple.
Three different elements come into con-
junction to form it. First there is the dipping
down beneath the skin of a bud of epidermis to
form the lens. When the bud of epithelium
sinks inwards to form the lens the skin closes
over the point of subsidence and becomes
transparent, thus forming the cornea of the eye.
The second element to form the eye grows
out from the nerve tube or brain of the
embryo. The outgrowth forms a cup round
the lens bud; the cup itself becomes the
retina and the stalk of the cup is trans-
formed into the optic nerve. The third
element is derived from the surrounding
tissue of the head — the mesoblast. The cells
of the mesoblast swarm within the cup and
round the lens and form the transparent jelly
within the eyeball. The outer coats of the

212 THE HUMAN BODY

eye, which enclose and protect the retina,
also arise from the mesoblast.

It may seem to the reader that the short
account which has been given of the develop-
ment of the eye only makes its evolution more
marvellous and mysterious. It must be
remembered, however, that we are witness-
ing the result of a process which has been
at work for millions of years. Indeed, since
ever life appeared on the globe, and that is
longer ago than the human mind can conceive,
the processes have been at work which have
ended in the compounding of an eye. It is
an instrument which can focus the outer
world and is attached to a brain which can
partly understand that image. Yet with
all its complexity the eye is but a triple
compound of skin, brain and intervening
tissue. One cannot expect the anatomist to
unravel in a few years that which has taken
the lifetime of a world to evolve.

We need not stop here to note the fact that
the human eyes are set in the face so as to
take in a common field of vision. That is
not a peculiar human trait ; binocular vision
is common to the higher primates. Nor need
we dilate on the remnant of a third eyelid or
nicitating membrane which can be seen as
a thin fold between the eyeball and the red
caruncula at the inner angle of the eye.
Evidently in the human ancestry a functional
third eyelid had been present, such as can be

SKIN, HAIR, AND SENSE ORGANS 213

seen in the eye of the cat. But allusion
must be made to a very remarkable vestige
of another eye now completely buried beneath
the great mass of our brain. Mention has
been made of a bridge of tissue — the corpus
callosum — which unites the two cerebral
hemispheres. Underneath its posterior end
is a small body no larger than a barley or
wheat grain, known as the pineal gland.
Connected with this vestigial body are
remnants of optic nerves and optic ganglia.
One has to go down the animal scale to the
most primitive form of lizard — Sphenodon —
to see this body assume the shape of an eye.
It is median, single, and looks out from the
crown of the head, and even in the lizard is a
remnant of a visual sense we have not
discovered so far in its original condition.
Yet there sometimes occurs in the roof of the
human skull a foramen or opening exactly
in the position which the pineal eye occupies
in lizards. The place is always marked by
two small openings for veins, and the venous
blood channel, which sweeps backwards in
the roof of the skull, often widens at the spot,
and sometimes actually divides, leaving room
as it were, for the appearance of a pineal eye
— which, however, never comes to the surface.
Quite recently Professor Dendy has
described the remnant of a curious organ
in the brain of man which may have been
connected with some peculiar form of sense

214 THE HUMAN BODY

organ. For a long time it has been known
that certain large fibres occur in the
central canal of the spinal cord of fishes.
Their function is unknown. They begin in
a patch of epithelium situated in the
roof of the canal of the stem of the brain.
Professor Dendy found that traces of these
occurred even in mammals. He found the
epithelial organ from which these peculiar
fibres arise in the canal of the brain stem of
primates. Ultimately he discovered traces
of this epithelial organ in the brain of the
chimpanzee and of man. We have here a
fine example of the persistence of an organ
which, in the higher vertebrates, is apparently
quite vestigial in nature.

CHAPTER XIV

THE MECHANISM OF THE BODY

It is refreshing in these Darwinian days
to open a book on anatomy which became
popular in England rather more than a
century ago. The book was written by
Archdeacon Paley, and entitled " Natural
Theology," the mechanism of the human
body being one of the chief subjects
of discourse. The Archdeacon had studied
anatomy in London to excellent purpose
under William Hunter — John Hunter's eldest
brother — one of the best anatomists at the
latter half of the eighteenth century. The
Archdeacon expressed in clear and simple
language the views which the anatomists
of his time held of the human body. To them,
it was a machine of superlative construction,
the final work of a power which had created
all things. How far the anatomists of
to-day have departed from the Archdeacon's
point of view may be seen from the preceding
chapters. We have in later days neglected
the study of the mechanism of the human
body. Modern anatomists look on it as an

213

216 THE HUMAN BODY

anonymous missive which has come to them
through the post of Time, stamped with
certain marks from which they try to interpret
— and with some success — something of the
whence and how it has come. With the best
of intentions the writer has been unable to
break away from the detective's outlook ;
with each new chapter he hoped to leave
evolution behind him and study the cunning
mechanism of the human body without a
mention of creation or evolution. How far
that can be done the present chapter will
show.

The manner in which the head is jointed to
the body is an example of an effective and
most delicate mechanism worked out under
circumstances of peculiar difficulty. The
head, like the telescope, is so jointed that the
eyes can sweep the horizon from east to west
by a turning movement, and scan the heavens
from base to zenith by a nodding or extensory
one. In the very centre of the movement is
placed the most vital structure in the body —
the lower end of the stem of the brain, which
issues from the skull by the foramen magnum
to pass into the canal of the backbone as the
spinal cord. We can flex and extend the
head, rotate it from side to side, and yet the
" silver cord " is never in the slightest degree
injured. When we examine the anatomy
of the parts we see that the nodding move-
ments occur between the skull and the first

MECHANISM OF THE BODY 217

vertebra or atlas, and that the rotating
movement takes place between the atlas and
the second vertebra or axis. This elaborate
mechanism, which can be employed at all times
with the utmost surety and safety, has been
accomplished by a simple modification of the
first vertebra. Like all other vertebrae the
atlas was originally made up of three parts
— a body, which forms the solid front w^all of
the canal for the spinal cord, an arch which
encloses the canal at the sides and at the
back, and a third minor element — the front
bar. The body of the atlas or first vertebra
of the neck has been transferred from its
proper position to become fixed as a pivot-
like process on the upper surface of the
second vertebra or axis. The arch of the
atlas having no longer a body to make up its
anterior deficiency unites w4th the third or
minor element — the front bar. The atlas
thus appears ring-shaped ; the pivot-like
process of the axis lies within the front part
of the ring. When the head is rotated so
that the face is turned from side to side, the
atlas, which supports the head, moves round
the pivot which has been shaped from its own
body. When, however, the head is rotated
thirty degrees to one side or to the other, the
movement is suddenly checked by special
ligaments. Were the ligaments or bands of
fibrous tissue not present, then the rotation
might be continued until the arch of the atlas

218 THE HUMAN BODY

was carried against the spinal cord ; indeed,
in the dead body when the Hgaments and
muscles are divided, it is possible to rotate the
head until the cord is completely crushed by
the rotating arch of the atlas. Yet the writer
knows of no case where death has been caused
by a forcible movement of the kind just
described.

While the joint between the atlas and axis
is a perfect example of a " pivot- joint "
that between the atlas and the skull,
where nodding movements occur, represents
a modified form of another type of joint —
the " ball and socket." The hip- joint, where
the semispherical head of the thigh-bone fits
within the cup formed on the pelvis by the
" acetabulum," is the most perfect example
of a ball and socket joint in the human body.
In order to allow the stem of the brain to
emerge at the foramen magnum, the central
parts of both " ball " and " cup " have been
cut away. If the ball were perfect it would
be placed over the foramen magnum and the
cup within the arch of the atlas. Only a
minor part of the ball has been left on each side
of the anterior end of the foramen magnum,
and all that is left of the cup are two corre-
sponding sockets placed on the upper surface
of the atlas. The centre of the joint is the
position of least movement, and is occupied
by the commencement of the spinal cord.
The movements are limited and checked by

MECHANISM OF THE BODY 219

ligaments and muscles so that in the most
extreme movements of the head the vital
nerve centres are not endangered. One
marvels at the simplicity of the elements out
of which the most complex and delicate
mechanisms are formed. By transferring
the body of the first to the second vertebra
and by a simple modification of the joint
between the first vertebra and the skull a
mechanism has been secured which gives
mobility to the head and safety to the nerve
cord.

The various orders of levers might be
studied at the joint between the head and
body. The head is a lever of the first order ;
the atlas is the fulcrum which supports the
lever. When the head is bent backwards,
the power is represented by the muscles of
the nape of the neck ; the weight lifted is
the front part of the head. The various
kinds of levers, however, are better exemplified
in the limbs, as well perhaps at the elbow
joint as anywhere. We shall consider the
forearm as a lever. If a weight be placed on
the upturned palm and the forearm bent on
the upper arm or brachium we see a lever of
the third order. The elbow joint is the
fulcrum ; the power, represented by the
biceps and anterior brachial muscle, is applied
to the lever between the fulcrum (elbow joint)
and the weight (hand), but much nearer the
fulcrum than the weight. Power is thus

220 THE HUMAN BODY

lost, but speed is gained. It is apparent that
the shorter the forearm or lever then the
greater will be the purchase. Now it is a
remarkable fact that man differs from the
anthropoid apes in having a comparatively
short and therefore powerful forearm. It is
shorter in European than in African races.
The gibbon is noted for the length of its
forearm. If we watch the anthropoids using
their arms in progression on the trees we at
once realize the significance of their long
and of our short forearm. The anthropoid
seizes the branch with its hand and then draws
upwards the weight of the body by flexing the
arm at the elbow joint. The moving lever is
not the forearm ; it is the brachium or upper
arm. We are still dealing with a lever of the
third order ; the fulcrum is still placed at the
elbow joint ; the power is furnished by the
biceps and anterior brachial muscle, but is
applied to the brachium, which is the moving
lever, at some distance from the fulcrum, thus
increasing power obtained. The weight is
represented not by an object placed in the hand
but by the whole body of the animal which is
attached to the arm or lever at the shoulder
joint. In the climbing anthropoid the upper
arm is short and forms a powerful movable
lever ; in working man, the forearm is the
movable lever, and therefore, compared to
the brachium, is short and powerful. We
see that the short forearm of man and

MECHANISM OF THE BODY 221

the long one of anthropoids are functional
modifications.

Having thus illustrated the first order of
levers at the head, the third order at the elbow,
we can see an excellent example of the second
order at the ankle joint. In this case the foot
is the lever, and we shall consider the mechan-
ism of the foot and leg in walking. A step
forwards has been taken by the left and the
heel of the right foot is being raised to propel
the body forwards. The pad of the foot and
balls of the toes represent the fulcrum of the
right foot ; the power is applied to the rising
heel by the muscles of the calf of the leg.
The weight of the body falls on the foot at the
ankle joint between the fulcrum at the toes
and the power at the heel, but much nearer
the power than the fulcrum. The nearer the
weight is to the power, or putting the matter
more brieflv — the shorter the heel, the smaller
is the piu'chase and the greater the muscle
power required. Hence the races with short
feet, high insteps and steeply set heels, have
large calves. The foot, however, is a peculiar
kind of lever ; it is arched with the weight
falling on the keystone of the arch. If the
foot is long and slender, and especially if
the weight falls near the centre of the arch,
the more likely is the arch to break down.

It is sometimes said that the collapse of the
arch of the foot is due to a giving way of the
ligaments which bind the bones of the arch

222 THE HUMAN BODY

together. Those who hold this view of
" flatfoot " overlook a very important function
of muscles and the true nature of ligaments.
Our bones are really not bound and kept
together at joints by passive fibrous ligaments.
There is only one joint in the body where this
is the case, and that is at the knee joint. As
we take a step forward we bend the knee, the
bones being then held in apposition by the
active muscles which end round the knee ;
then as we bring the weight of the body upon
the outstretched leg the knee is straightened
out, the ligaments becoming tight and pressing
the bones together, thus securing the joint as
it supports the weight of the body. At the
very end of the movement the lower end of
the thigh-bone undergoes a peculiar rotation
inward and backward which locks the joint
and secures it more firmly. At all other joints
muscles keep the bones in apposition except
when the movements become forced or
extreme ; it is only in these extreme move-
ments that the ligaments take a part in
limiting the action and securing the joint.
This is also the case with the ligaments of the
arch of the foot. When we stand, the arch
is maintained by the steady and continuous
action of muscles. Some of these pass along
the sole of the foot from heel to toes, and act
like the tense string of a bow, but the chief
supporting muscles are situated in the leg,
and sustain the arch of the foot by means of

MECHANISM OF THE BODY 223

long tendons. Every one knows how tiresome
a thing it is to stand still ; it fatigues infinitely
more than walking, because in standing these
muscles of the sole are continuously in action,
whereas in walking they have alternate phases
of action and rest.

Few people realize how complex is the act
of standing and the great num-ber of joints
and muscles which are involved. Not a
muscle of the foot is asleep then, all are in
action binding the various parts of the foot
together to form a solid supporting base for
the upright body. A dead man, however
stark death may have rendered the trunk,
cannot be maintained upright without support.
Even a statue needs to have its feet firmly
bolted to the pedestal. In the living standing
man all the muscles of the leg are in quivering
action, balancing and stiffening the legs on
the feet. All the time messages are passing
from the muscles to the centres in the spinal
cord, from which other messages are being
issued to regulate and co-ordinate the muscles
in their action. The knees may be locked
by the mechanism just mentioned when we
stand at " attention," but most of us prefer
to stand with the knees slightly bent, with the
knee-caps loose, and the muscles behind
the knees in action, keeping the joint stiff.
Every schoolboy knows how the standing
posture may be upset by catching the knee-
cap muscles off their guard by a blow delivered

224 THE HUMAN BODY

behind the joint. At the hip joint there is
also a mechanism which saves muscular effort.
In the front of the joint there is an extremely
strong ligament (ilio-femoral) ; when we
stand at attention we over-extend the body
at the hip- joint, and this strong ligament in
front of the joint becomes tense, supports
the body, and thus saves the muscles. The
spinal column is not stable by itself. It rests
on the sacrum of the pelvis, the pelvic basin
in turn resting on the thighs at the hip- joints.
The vertebrae of the backbone — five in the
loins, twelve in the dorsal region, seven in the
neck, making twenty-four in all — are balanced
one upon the other and maintained erect by
the exceeding complex musculature of the
back. The twelve pairs of ribs, besides
serving the purposes of respiration, also act
as levers for the backbone. The great sheets
of muscles in the wall of the abdomen and
thorax, which come into action and support
the viscera when we stand up, at the same
time act on the ribs and through them balance
the spine and trunk. Then the head is balanced
on the spine by the muscles of the neck ;
every one notices how the balance of the head
is lost as the seated sleeper nods. The
shoulders, too, have to be kept up by the
muscles ; the great muscular sheet (trapezius)
which descends from the head and neck to the
prominence of each shoulder, is in action every
minute we are in the upright posture. In

MECHANISM OF THE BODY 225

time an aching feeling of fatigue may settle on
the shoulder when the contracting power of the
muscles is exhausted. Thus standing is an
exceedingly complex act, which involves the
majority of the muscles of the body. All
the muscles involved are regulated and
co-ordinated unconsciously by a silently
working but elaborate reflex nervous system.
One of the most marvellous adaptations of
our bodies is the manner in which bones
are built to meet the strain and stress
to which the skeleton is exposed during life.
The material of the bones is so arranged that
the greatest strength is obtained at a minimum
expenditure of building material. The skele-
ton is not a dead inert framework in the living
body ; although it is chiefly composed of
calcium salts yet we have good reason to
suppose that every particle of a bone is alive.
When from illness or idleness the bones are
not exposed to strain or stress, they atrophy ;
their tissue is partly removed and the living
cells or osteoblasts which permeate every
part of a bone are lessened in their building
activity ; absorption of old bone takes place
at a greater rate than deposition of new bone.
In men who are living active lives and taking
vigorous exercise and have not passed the
prime of life the opposite is true ; deposition
or gro\N'th exceeds absorption in rate. The
cells of the bone are sensitive to the forces
which are brought to bear on them. This is

226 THE HUMAN BODY

very well seen when the bones of the arch of
the foot are laid open by a vertical section
which passes from heel to toes. In the heel
bone which forms the posterior pillar of the
supporting arch, the building cells or osteo-
blasts have laid the bone down in long needles
running in the direction of the transmitted
weight — ^from the base of the heel upwards
and forwards to the ankle joint. These
supporting needles are bound together by fine
transverse plates, the whole system of the heel
bone being enclosed within a thin shell. In the
front pillar of the arch of the foot, the needles
of bone are arranged so that their direction is
from the bones of the toes backwards and
upwards to the ankle. The systems of the
front and back pillars of the foot meet and
cross in the keystone of the arch — the astra-
galus or ankle bone.

In the upper extremity of the thigh-bone
there is a more complex system. The neck
of the femur serves as a bracket to fix the
head of the thigh-bone to its shaft. When
we stand on one leg the whole weight of the
body is transmitted by the neck of the thigh-
bone. When the neck is laid open it is seen
that the osteoblasts have laid the bone down,
and are maintaining it in two main systems.
One of these — ^the supporting system — passes
down frorn the head of the thigh-bone to join
the system of the shaft ; the other system
forms a tie series passing outwards trans-

MECHANISM OF THE BODY 227

versely from the head to the upper end of the
shaft. The bone systems thus described in
the neck of the thigh-bone correspond to the
obhque and horizontal rods seen in the
brackets of old-fashioned street lamps. If,
however, a fracture of the femur occurs and
the lines of force or of support are altered then
the osteoblast will meet the new conditions by
rearranging the system of bone trabeculae or
needles.

It is only in short bones or at the extremities
of long bones that the osteoblasts lay their
material down in specially arranged needles,
plates or spongy patterns. In the shafts of
long bones the material forms a hollow
cylinder wdth dense walls. Engineers are
well aw^are that the strongest support is
obtained with the least expenditure of material
by using hollow cylindrical pillars.

There is no end to the wonderful mechanisms
of the human body ; many chapters would
be required to deal with them exhaustively.
Some of the most beautiful examples are seen
in connexion with the heart and lungs, but
we will put these aside and merely mention
one which excited the admiration of Arch-
deacon Paley. " It has been said," he writes,
" that whenever nature attempts to work two
or more purposes by one instrument she does
both or all imperfectly. Is this true of the
tongue regarded as an instrument of speech,
and taste and deglutition ? So much other-svise

228 THE HUMAN BODY

that nine hundred and ninety-nine persons
out of a thousand, by the instrumentaHty
of their one organ, talk, taste and swallow
very well. . . . There are brought together
within the cavity of the mouth more distinct
uses of parts executing more distinct offices
than I think can be found lying so near to
one another, or within the same compass in
any other portion of the body." That is true,
and during the century which has elapsed
since his words were written we have become
aware that the mechanism of mastication, of
speech and of swallowing is more complicated
than even Archdeacon Paley supposed. Dur-
ing mastication the mandible undergoes an
extremely complex series of movements, which
are regulated and controlled at each phase by
a special system of muscles and nerves. The
carpet of glands spread everywhere beneath
the mucous membrane of the mouth, lips and
tongue, is reflexly called into action by
another nerve mechanism and throws out a
lubricating secretion which moistens the lips,
cheeks and gums. The three pairs of salivary
glands situated in the cheek (parotid) and under
the jaw (submaxillary), and under the tongue
(sublingual) are stimulated by another system
of nerves to pour their secretions into the
mouth. At meal times neither speech nor
respiration need be interrupted.

The mechanism of the throat or pharynx
is also complex. A bolus of food, when it

MECHANISM OF THE BODY 229

has been passed from the mouth to the
pharynx in the first stage of swallowing, finds
four passages open for its further progress. It
may return to the mouth, it may pass into the
naso-pharynx and nose : it may pass into the
larynx or windpipe. These three entrances
or passages to the pharynx are kept open except
during the act of swallowinof. There is a
fourth passage or opening leading to the
oesophagus which is always closed except
when pushed open by a bolus of food or
mouthful of fluid. Before the bolus of food
which has just reached the pharynx can be
seized by the muscular wall of that cavity
and propelled onwards, it is necessary that
the passages to the mouth, nose, and larynx be
shut and the opening to the oesophagus relaxed
or open. An elaborate system of muscles,
under the control of an automatic nerve
mechanism, accomplishes all these things with
every mouthful we swallow. Swallowing
seems such an easy and automatic act that
we are quite unaware of the elaborate system
of signals, side shunts and level-crossings which
have to be manipulated to permit the busy
traffic of the pharynx to pass unchecked. A
bolus of food in the pharynx brings reflexly
all of these into action, but there are occasions
when their efficiency is disturbed by an urgent
and unexpected message from the larynx or
the nose. In other words, a morsel of food
in the windpipe which has passed the sentry

230 THE HUMAN BODY

at the larynx at an absent minute calls other
muscles into play and upsets the normal
mechanism of swallowing. The movements
carried out under the active guidance of the
brain form only a fraction of the work which
goes forward in the body. The elaborate
movements of respiration, the mechanism of
the heart ; of the arteries, of the veins, the
regulated contractions of the stomach and
bowel, besides many movements of the body,
are being conducted and regulated day and
night by nerve centres and systems over
which we have little or no control.

CHAPTER XV

DEGENERATION AND REGENERATION

Some years ago everybody was alarmed by
the statement that our national physique
was in process of decay. The question whether
this was the case or not could have been decided
with ease if exact measurements had been made
of the generations which have lived in this
land before us ; but unfortunately facts
relating to the ancient British are very few.
Professor Karl Pearson with his pupils made a
searching enquiry regarding the stature of
prehistoric people, and came to the conclusion
that " the average Englishman of to-day is cer-
tainly not behind his Anglo-Saxon ancestor."
Indeed the evidence is almost positive that
modern men and women are taller than their
forerunners of a thousand years ago, but the
difficulty of making a dogmatic statement is
increased by the fact that in all times stature
has varied with class. Galton found that the
men of the commonalty of modern England
had a stature of 1,700 mm. (5 ft. 7 in.) ; the
middle class (Pearson) 1,728 (5 ft. 8 in.) ; the
Oxford students (Schuster) 1,740 (5 ft. 8*6 in.).

231

232 THE HUMAN BODY

How much the higher stature of the well-
to-do classes is due to better breeding and how
much to better feeding is not determined, but
all the evidence points to inheritance as being
the more important factor. Modern statistics
leave no doubt about well-nourished boys
and girls being taller and heavier than children
of a corresponding age who are less well-nour-
ished and cared for. We have no evidence,
however, to show that under-feeding will
undermine the growth-energy of a race ; under-
feeding stunts the individual but so far as we
know leaves the stock unaffected. That,
however, is no reason why any one should be
underfed.

When we come to enquire into other features
of our bodies we have less reason to form an
optimistic opinion. There seems to be at
least two parts or regions which are in a state
of change. The first of these concerns the
whole system of mastication — the teeth, the
jaws, the face, and throat. The second includes
the lower part of the bowel — ^the appendix —
the caecum and colon. These parts belong to
the commencement and to the termination of
the alimentary system. There is every reason to
suppose that the degenerative changes in these
two regions of the body are manifestations of a
common cause ; the races in which we find
irregular teeth, contracted jaws, constricted
throats are also the races who are subject to
diseases of the appendix, caecum and colon.

DEGENERATION 233

We may conceive two things to have happened
(1) That these changes in the jaws, teeth and
colon are simply the appearance of new racial
features ; we are in the habit of saying such
characters appear spontaneously because we
have not yet discovered the cause of their
origin, (ii) It may be that these changes which
are taking place in the national physique are
due to an alteration in the kind of food on which
we modern peoples live. Our alimentary system
was originally evolved to cope with the raw
food of primitive man. Our digestive system
may be unbalanced by the nature of our diet.
Think for a minute how we stand in the matter
of food as compared with the ancient Britons !
To-day the world empties her lap into England
— wheat, flesh and fruit. Cooking and seas-
oning have altered the nature of a diet which
in its concentrated nature and abundant
supply forms a revolutionary change in the
methods of life. The ancient Briton had
only an uncertain and crude supply gathered
from small field-patch, wood or river. Cooking
is an art which comes with civilization ; primi-
tive man may have roasted or broiled his
meat ; he probably never boiled either his
meal or vegetables.

The evil condition of modern teeth is
notorious ; dental decay of course is prevent-
able by strict cleanliness. In the skulls of
Britons who lived in these islands a thousand
years ago and upwards, it is usual to find the

234 THE HUMAN BODY

teeth sound, their crowns worn down by use,
the palate well spread ; the nasal cavities
well formed, the cheek-bones well set. We
have no reason to suppose that our remote
ancestors used tooth brushes. It is true that
bad teeth are also found in ancient European
races ; for instance, in the Tilbury man, one
of the earliest of human remains yet discovered
in England, many of the teeth have been lost
during life ; even in the European of the
glacial period, dental disease may be seen.
Such a condition was rare in prehistoric times ;
now it affects all. The teeth of prehistoric
races of mankind are worn ; the crowns are
eroded by the act of chewing food which must
have been tough and required vigorous
mastication. In modern skulls of even quite
old men it is usual to see such teeth as have
remained sound in the jaws, quite unworn.
We may draw one conclusion with the utmost
certainty from the comparison of ancient and
modern teeth — that the ancient and modern
dietaries were totally different in nature. The
old required vigorous mastication ; the modern
does not. We may also infer that the disturb-
ance which is so widely affecting our teeth,
jaws, nose and face is a consequence of that
change in dietary. The writer must have
examined at one time or another over 100 skulls
of Neolithic people — people who lived in
Britain 4,000 years ago or more, and has
only seen one with a contracted palate and

DEGENERATION 235

irregular teeth. Although contraction in the
width of the face, narrowing of the palate, ob-
struction of the nose and throat are extremely
common in modern children and adults, these
conditions are never seen at birth. They
become manifest as the permanent teeth
erupt and com,e into use. The condition we
are discussing is therefore not present at birth.
While it cannot then be called hereditary it is
possible that a susceptibility or tendency may
descend Trom one generation to another in
some families. All we can say at present is
that a retrograde change does appear to be at
work on the faces and jaws of highly civilized
peoples and that the change is probably due
to diet.. Our diet has been altered but we
can hardly expect nature to provide us at once
with a mouth and teeth suitable to the new
conditions of living. The contracted palate
appears to be Nature's way of bringing our
jaws into harmony with the kind of work we
are giving them to do. Instead of waiting
for Nature to act it would be more practical
perhaps to alter our diet to suit the dental
system we have inherited. Mention has
already been made of the fact that the third
molars in highly civilized people may be very
late in erupting or may never cut the gum.
The third molars are often deformed or much
reduced in size.

Metchnikoff, one of the most intrepid stu-
dents of life of our time, has boldly declared

236 THE HUMAN BODY

that the appendix, the csecum and the whole
of the great bowel — a massive and long tube
with a highly-organized system of coats and
tissues and vessels — are useless structures in
the body of man. Nay, under certain condi-
tions, the presence of the colic system may
be a constant danger to life. Such a state-
ment, coming from a biologist of the very first
rank, is bound to carry authority and per-
suasion. If Metchnikoff's opinion is well
founded then the colic system of man is a
gigantic blunder in animal construction. We
have always supposed that Nature made no
mistakes.

The evidence in support of Professor
Metchnikoff's theory is altogether unconvinc-
ing. We have not yet discovered the function
of the various parts of the great bowel — the
appendix, csecum and colon. It has always
been the custom to regard those organs whose
functions or uses are unknown as useless,
rudimentary or vestigial organs. As our
knowledge of the body has increased the list
of useless organs has decreased. Our know-
ledge of the human colic system is of the
crudest. The function of the appendix we do
not know, but in the human body at birth it
is identical in form and structure to the
appendix of the great anthropoids. It is
when boyhood and girlhood are reached that
it becomes liable to disease and to undergo
reduction in size and contortion in shape.

DEGENERATION 237

We seem to be dealing with a change in struc-
ture of exactly similar nature to those degener-
ative changes which we have already noted
in the teeth, jaws and throat. In their case
it seemed most likely that their change in
form is a result of diet and it seems very prob-
able that the same statement will yet be
proved to be true in the case of the appendix.

What little we know of the function of the
colon favours the opinion — for our knowledge
as yet is only a collection of opinions founded
on a few facts — that the fault lies not in the
colic system but in the nature of the work it
is asked to perform in modern man. Its
main work in our ancestors consisted in the
digestion of the cellulose or husk elements of
grains and of fruit and vegetables. Our
modern dietary has called upon it to act upon
a dietary totally different to that for which
it was evolved. Should we then blame the
colon and call it a useless structure ?

Metchnikoff has helped us to understand
the rich fauna of micro-organisms which
flourishes within the colon. Under normal
circumstances the bacteria appear to assist
in colic digestion ; nay, it is possible they are
essential factors in colic digestion. We cannot
conceive that the fauna which flourished in
the colon of Neolithic man will thrive under
the conditions which hold in modern man.
Injurious forms of fermentations do occur
within the great bowel of civilized races.

238 THE HUMAN BODY

Absorption of fluids takes place from the colon.
It is in the colon that the fseces assume their
solid form. It is probably when the contents
are injuriously changed by fermentation that
substances are absorbed which poison the
whole system. In cases where such patho-
logical conditions prevail the surgeon will
relieve a patient's condition by either remov-
ing the colon altogether or by performing an
operation which will throw it out of action.
If relief is thus obtained we must not infer
that the colon is a useless organ ; all that can
be said is that it is not indispensable to modern
man living on a highly artificial diet. There
are a very few parts of the body which the
surgeon has not removed when their removal
is necessitated by disease. Because a man
can get along in life with only one arm or one
eye we must not suppose that the second arm
or the second eye were superfluous. There is
another important fact known to all biologists ;
in the alimentary system of every vertebrate
animal a part is specialized to serve the pur-
pose of a colon. It is not likely that such an
ancient and essential part of the animal
body should suddenly become useless. The
evidence, so far as it goes, leads one to think
that the kind of food and the nature of cooking
now used by highly civilized races are unsuit-
able for our alimentary systems. We can
hardly expect evolutionary processes to keep
pace with our pampered and often extrava-

DEGENERATION 239

gant appetites. As rational beings we should
try to adapt our diet to the colon rather
than expect that structure to adapt itself to
our diet. Still, whatever the cause and the
cure may be there can be no doubt that
certain parts of our alimentary systems
are out of harmony with their modern
surroundings.

As regards the other systems of the body,
the brain and nervous system, the muscles
and bones, the writer is not aware of any
modern change which can be detected in them,
with one exception. The long bones of the
lower limbs appear to be altering in form. In
the thigh-bones of the early British, as late
as the date of the Anglo-Saxon invasion, there
is a peculiar flattening of the upper end of the
femur. The leg-bone or tibia of these is often
flattened from side to side, giving it a sword-
like shape. Thigh and leg-bones of this t}^e
are uncommon in our modern population. The
meaning of the change in femur and tibia we
do not understand. Some have attributed
these ancient characters to the habit of
squatting ; others have supposed them to
indicate a people who were accustomed to
hill climbing.

Thus it will be seen that there is no symptom
of bodily decay in modern man if we except
— and they are important exceptions — those of
the alimentary system. The so-called signs or
stigmata of criminalism have already been

240 THE HUMAN BODY

briefly alluded to in connexion with the
outer ear.

The spec^ialization of modern life does com-
pel men and women to spend their lives under
condi' Sns which are ill-suited for maintaining
the body in a state of fitness and health. The
growing body cannot develop normally unless
the muscular system is regularly and naturally
exercised. At no time has physical culture
been more widely popular than at present.
It has effected much that is good and perhaps
a little that is really harmful. We see modern
methods of physical culture replacing the
exercises of the drill-sergeant of a past
generation. The ideal human body, in the
opinion of the old drill-sergeant, was that of
a man at attention, with head thrown abnorm-
ally back, pouting, expanded chest, enclosed
within a tightly-fitting tunic, back rigid,
muscles tight and brawny, toes turned out-
wards. That was his ideal, and it was wonder-
ful how he succeeded in turning raw recruits
into these parade soldiers. The ideal of
course was wrong ; agility, health and endur-
ance were sacrificed to parade effect. The
ideal, too, which is the aim of so many modern
" professors " of physical culture is equally
wrong. They aim at producing a voluminous
chest and a Herculean musculature. They
cultivate in their pupils a muscle system
which would fit them to earn their liveli-
hood as navvies. Such an over-development,

DEGENERATION 241

we shall see, is always bought at a
price.

Let us first examine the question of chest
development. The respiratory movements — ■
their rate — their amplitude — are determined
by the condition of the blood in the lung.
The harder the muscles work the greater is
the volume of impure blood which reaches the
lungs and the greater must be the chest
movement to supply the respiratory exchange.
In children the best respiratory exercises are
obtained by allowing them to run in play, to
contest in games. The condition of the blood
thus produced will stimulate the free respira-
tory movements and a natural development of
the chest. No artificial breathing exercises
will improve on Nature's mechanism. When
men and women lead sedentary and quiet
lives their lungs are partly shut down ; the
respiratory system works at less than half
its capacity. It is important that at one
period of the day at least the lungs should be
tested to their full power, for if we do not use
them occasionally at their full capacity, then
our ability of responding to an effort will
certainly be lost in time. The true test for
our chest and lungs is : are they equal to
meet the demand made on them by physical
efforts ?

If we examine men and children closely we
shall see that no two individuals use exactly
the same movements of the chest in breathing ;
Q

242 THE HUMAN BODY

our respiratory movements vary as much as
our handwriting. Both can be improved ;
but there is no absolute ideal ; each must be
improved or corrected according to its type.

In recent years the writer has had opportuni-
ties of examining the greatly expanded chests
of men who were ardent pupils at schools of
physical culture. In every case the respira-
tory movements differed in type from those
in men of corresponding age who were in fit
condition, but had not gone through a special
training. When a breath is taken by a normal
man it is usual to see the upper wall of the
abdomen — the epigastric region — swell for-
wards under the pressure caused by the descent
of the diaphragm, and the viscera under it.
In those with specially expanded chests this
movement is absent ; the diaphragm in
those pupils instead of depressing the viscera
is held up by them and exerts its strength in
lifting the whole chest upwards. The greatly
expanded chests do not indicate respiratory
capacity, for it is seen that the artificial
expansion of the chest has been obtained
by elevating the ribs to an inspiratory
position. In normally formed chests the
ribs are placed obliquely, sloping forwards
and downwards. When a breath is taken
the capacity of the chest is increased by rais-
ing the ribs to a position which is nearer
the horizontal. In specially, but wrongly,
trained men the ribs, even during expiration.

DEGENERATION 243

are maintained in an inspiratory position,
the respiratory capacity of the chest being
thereby limited. When these expanded chests
are Hghted up by means of X-rays the heart
is seen to be big and hypertrophied, the lungs
are more voluminous than they should be in
healthy young men. Such pupils are artifi-
cially overtrained ; when the exuberance of
youth is over they will fare worse in life than
those who have kept themselves naturally fit.
The lungs are really delicate and complex
structures, and the fact cannot be over-
emphasized that they can be injured by over-
expansion quite as readily as by compression
of the chest. So far as concerns the form of
chest our ideal must not be the prominent
expanded type so often portrayed on the
posters of the professors of physical culture.
Unless the muscles of the back are kept in
use in the young the spinal column is certain
to develop irregular and injurious curvatures.
We have already pointed out that in the erect
posture, whether seated or standing, all the
muscles of the spine are in action. Continu-
ous action soon produces fatigue. The child,
seated at the school desk, quickly discovers
how the sense of fatigue may be relieved. The
weight on the spine is relieved by inclining
the head until it is supported by the arm
flexed on the desk. Further ease is obtained
by allowing the body to bend sideways and
obliquely, for in this manner the side joints

244 THE HUMAN BODY

of the vertebrae come to rest on each other
and thus the muscles are relieved. In a
short time the bones and muscles accommodate
themselves to the assumed posture ; only
special exercises and great care will prevent
spinal deformities from becoming permanent.
Modern teachers are well aware of the danger
of keeping their pupils seated or standing for a
long lesson ; they rest their pupils by giving
them exercises. The natural exercises are
those of play — ^running, jumping, climbing —
all forms of active games.

In every healthy individual there must be
a correspondence between the size of the heart
and development of muscles. Modern
physiologists are keenly alive to the part
which muscles play, not only in using the
blood but also in forcing it back to the heart.
Normal chest movements also assist the cir-
culation. It is, therefore, evident that those
movements of the body used as morning
exercises — ^flexion and extension of the body,
movements of the limbs — are really means by
which we can exercise both our hearts and
lungs. The greater the current of blood
forced towards the chest the greater must be
the activity of heart and lungs.

There is one aspect of muscular and
breathing exercises which is often overlooked.
Right exercises should also improve our
control of muscles ; no muscle acts by itself ;
it is always acting against an opponent.

DEGENERATION 245

When the index finger is bent not only are the
bending muscles in action but so are the
extending ones. From beginning to end of
the act the mind automatically controls or
balances the one set against the other.
Teachers of singing, as the writer learned from
the well-known treatise on singing by Mr.
Shakespeare, are well aware of this. They
strive to teach their pupils to balance and con-
trol their respiratory movements ; from the
point at which inspiration begins to the point
at which the following expiration ends, both
muscles of expiration and inspiration are in
action, and at every phase of the act are
under not a conscious but an automatic
control. In learning to sing the control of
the muscles is at first conscious ; by practice
it becomes unconscious.

It was the writer's intention to discuss
what may be termed the ideal form of the
human body; the subject, however, is too
complex to be dismissed in a paragraph, and
must be alluded to only. Artists of all ages
have striven to shape their ideal of the human
figure so that the head, the neck, the body
and extremities bear a definite relationship to
each other. The height of the head is ac-
cepted by most modern artists as a standard ;
French artists think that the height of the
head, measured from the level of the crown of
the head to the level of the chin, with the
model's eyes directed forward in a horizontal

246 THE HUMAN BODY

plane, should equal one eighth or 12.5 per
cent, of the stature. Anthropologists find
that the head is about 13 per cent, of the
average male stature, and 14 per cent, of the
average female stature, while in a baby at
birth in place of being one-eighth it is almost
a fourth (23.5 per cent.) of the total height of
the body. The ancient artists of Egypt and
Greece constructed the ideal human frame
so that the stature was 7 J or 7f heads in
length — thus conforming to the proportion
which anthropologists have found to be true
of modern man. It is quite certain that no
artist or medical man has ever seen a human
body which conforms in every detail to the
absolute ideals which have at various times
been postulated. The ideal is really a com-
posite and imaginary figure and the ordinary
man and woman need not be disappointed if
in the shape and proportion of their bodies
they fall far short of the classical ideals.
After all the true test of the body is how it
stands the wear of time and the work of life ;
the best of health may be sheltered within a
rugged, ugly body. What one may well envy
is the easy pose, the well-balanced action of
the muscles which characterize such classical
figures which are really beautiful.

CHAPTER XVI

THE GENEALOGY AND ANTIQUITY OF MAN

In all the foregoing chapters we have been
examining and reviewing facts which bear
more or less directly on the origin of man.
In this final and brief chapter we propose to
knit the various threads of evidence together
and see how much we really know and
what we merely guess concerning the genealogy
and antiquity of man. The reader's first
difficulty is — unless he is already familiar
with works on geology — to obtain a true
perspective of the recent periods of the
earth's history. The names of geological
epochs — Pleistocene (Quaternary), Pliocene,
Miocene, Eocene, may mean little to him. We
have to picture those periods from what we
know of the present or recent period. The
Recent period is regarded as stretching into
the past until the glacial or Pleistocene period
is reached. We have the most hazy ideas
regarding the number of years which have
passed since a more temperate climate settled
over Europe ; by some authorities the number
is estimated at 15,000 ; by others at 150,000

247

248 THE HUMAN BODY

years. We shall accept the larger figure as
the nearer approximation to the truth and
use it as a rough standard for the comparison
of past geological periods. Now all through
the Recent period we find remains of man
modern in type and form ; the evolution and
origin of man is therefore to be sought for at
an earlier date.

The period in the earth's history which
preceded the Recent is known as the Pleisto-
cene. It is characterized by periods of cold
with temperate intervals. As regards its
duration, it may be estimated at least ten
times the length of the Recent period — ^pro-
bably even longer. In this period, too, we
know of remains of man — of the type known
as Neanderthal man. He is very differ-
ent from modern man. Indeed, Professor
Schwalbe and other competent judges regard
Neanderthal man as a special species of man
— Homo primigenius — ^while all modern men
belong to the species Homo sapiens ! Yet
Neanderthal man had a very large, and, as
we know from his flint implements, a capable
brain. We can thus trace man into the
Pleistocene period and through it almost to
the beginning of that period, but not quite.
The oldest Pleistocene man, whom we know
only from a lower jaw found in strata near
Heidelberg, is also of the Neanderthal type.
We do not know the Heidelberg man's skull
and brain, but have reason to suppose that both

ANTIQUITY OF MAN 249

were highly developed. The Heidelberg man
belongs to an early stage of the Pleistocene
period, but there is evidence to show that
man was evolved before this period dawned,
for flint implements, of human workmanship,
are found in strata formed long before the
beginning of the Pleistocene period.

When we pass beyond the Pleistocene we
enter the Pliocene period of the earth's history.
This is a much longer epoch than the Pleisto-
cene ; it is three or four times as long. Now,
we know of no human remains which we can
assign to this period with certainty, but it is
very probable that the fossil remains found
in Java, and ascribed to a human form to which
the name of Pithecanthropus has been given,
belong to the close of the Pliocene period.
Many regard the stratum in which Pithecan-
thropus was found as having been laid down
in the beginning of the Pleistocene period.
His small brain and primitive skull indicate a
much earlier period — probably Pliocene and
not a very late part of that period. Thus,
when we enter the Pliocene period we lose
all certain trace of man. Some day remains
will be found which will carry human history
further into the past, but we must stop at this
point now and take up the evidence from
another point of view.

The Pliocene period we have seen was a
long one — three or four times the length
of the Pleistocene. The period which preceded

250 THE HUMAN BODY

the Pliocene — ^the Miocene — was longer still
and the earlier period — ^the Eocene — still
longer. Now we know the Eocene period
was the one in which the mammalian forms
of life came to the front amongst the types
of vertebrate animals. The lowest forms of
primates were represented then. At the
beginning of the Miocene period the primates
had made great progress. We have reason
to believe that by the beginning of that period
ancestral forms of the monkeys of the New
World, of the Old World, and what is much
more important to the student of human
origin — the ancestral stock of the gibbons or
small anthropoids had appeared. By the
middle of the Miocene period we find fossil
remains of Dryopithecus — the earliest form
of the large anthropoids yet discovered.
Now that is an important fact ; by the middle
of the Miocene period a large form of anthro-
poid had appeared for certain ; it may
have been evolved earlier. We can say
with confidence from the evidence produced
in former chapters of this book, that with the
appearance of the great anthropoids the point
in time is reached when we may reasonably
expect the evolution of a human stock.
The giant or great-bodied primates probably
divided about this period into an arboreal
and a terrestrial stock. The arboreal stock
gave origin to the gorilla, the chimpanzee,
the orang and the extinct ape, Paleopithecus,

ANTIQUITY OF IMAN 251

which we know to have lived in India during
the PHocene period ; the terrestrial stock
provided the ancestry of man.

Thus we can trace man back to the end of
the Pliocene period, and there his traces are
lost ; we can trace the primate stock forward
from the Eocene to the middle of the Miocene,
when we see a form which indicates we have
reached the point at which the human stock
should branch off. From the middle of the
Miocene to the end of the Pliocene is as yet a
blank in the history of man, but who, on
surveying the progress of the last twenty years,
will say that this blank will not yet be made
good ?

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bland-Sutton, Sir J. — Evolution and Disease, 1890,

Darwin, Charles. — Descent of Man and Selection in
Relation to Sex. 1871. Cheap Edition. 1901.
Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals,
1872.

Donaldson, H. H, — The Growth of the Brain, 1895,

Duckworth, W. L. H. — Morphology and Anthropology,
1904. Prehistoric Man, 1912.

Ellis, Havelock. — Man and Woman. 1897.

Geddes, p., and Thomson, J. A. — The Evolution of
Sex. 1889. Revised edition, 1901.

Haeckel, E. — The Evolution of Man. Translated by
J. McCabe. 1905.

Bartmann, R. — Anthropoid Apes. 1885.

HoPF, Ludwig. — The Human Species. English Edition,
1909.

Huxley, T. H. — Man's Place in Nature, 1863. Re-
printed in Collected Essays, 1900.

Keane, a. H. — Ethnology. 2nd Edition. 1896.

Keith, Arthur. — Ancient Types of Man. 1911. Human
Embryology and Morphology. 1904.

Lankester, Sir E. Ray. — The Kingdom of Mar^
1907.

Lyell, Sir Charles. — The Geological Evidence of the
Antiquity of Man, 1863.

253

254 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Metoh-NIKoff, E. — The Nature of Man. English Trans-
lation by P. Chalmers Mitchell. 1903.

Paley, William. — Natural Theology. Edition prepared
by Lord Brougham and Sir Charles Bell. 1837-40.

Prichard, J, G. — Researches on the Physical History of
Man. 1847.

Qtjaik's Elements of Anatomy. Eleventh Edition, edited
by E. A, Schafer, Johnson Symington, and Thomas
H. Bryce, 1909.

TopiNARD, P. — Elements d' Anthropologic Generale, 1885«

WlEDERSHEiM, R. — The Structure of Man. Translated by
H. and M, Bernard 5 Edited by G, B, Howes. 1895.

INDEX

ACEOMEGAIT, 61, 62
African races, 174, 176, 177
Amnion,^ 95
Anthropoids, 41, 42
Antliropoids, Teeth of, 45
Appendix, 49, 236
Azygos, Lobe of lung, 83

Bell, Sir Charles, 28

Blood relationship, 53

Body, Proportions of, 245, 246

Bone, Structure of, 226, 227

Bone, Growth of, 59

Brain, Development of, 34, 35, 36

Brain, Fissures of, 23

Brain, Growth of, 37

Brain, Hemispheres of, 22

Brain, Sexual difference in, 151

Brain, Size of, 32, 33, 34, 36, 37

Brain stem, 26

Csecum, 49, 236
Carotid artery, 16, 104
Cataract, 203
Cerebellum, 26, 27
Cerebrum, 22, 26
Cheek, Muscles of, 188
Chin, 193
Chorion, 95
Cleft Palate, 101
Cloaca, 106
Club foot, 107
Colon, 236, 237, 238
Cro-Magnon race, 56, 172
Cyclops, 123

Derbyshire neck, 17
Dermoid cysts, 122
Development, Arrest of, 101
Diaphragm, 18, 19
Digi-stion, Organs of, 48
Dryopithecus, 58, '^oO
Dwarfs, 60, 63, 68

Ear, 191, 192, 210, 211
Ear, Muscles of, 190, 191

Embrvo, Human, 95, 110
Eye, Development of, 211, 212
Eyelids, Muscles of, 185, 186

Facial muscles, 184, 189

Facial muscles. Evolution of,

189, 190
Finger prints, 199, 200
Flat foot, 88, 222
Foot, 78, 107

Galley Hill man, 172
Giants, 60, 68
Gibbon, 74, 75, 76
Gill arches, 98, 104
Gill clefts, 98, 99
Glands, Secretion of, 17
Growth, 58, 64, 141, 143
Growth of bone, 225
Growth of head, 135, 136

Hair, 203, 204-206

Hand, 194

Harvey, 11

Hare-lip, 100

Head form, 167, 168, 169-172, 179

Heart, 18

Heart, Development of, 102

Heidelberg man, 248, 249

Hernia, 93

Higher primates, 51

Hunter, John, 40

Jaws, Irregular development of,

178
Joint, Hip, 218
Joints, of head, 216

Leg, Calf of, 89, 90
Levers in body, 216-219-224
Lips, Muscles of the, 186, 187
Lungs, 18

Mammary glands, 154, 156
Mandible, Arrested development
of, 125

255

256

INDEX

Mastication, Mechanism of, 228,

229
Mastication, Muscles of, 137, 138
Median nerve, 12
Metchnikofl, 236, 237
Microceplialic Idiot, Brain of, 108,

109
Miocene period, 250
Mongolian race, 179
Monkeys of Old and New World,

42, 43, 250
Monsters, Artificial production ofj

121
Muscles, Vestigial, 85, 86

Nails, 206

Neanderthal race, 56, 172, 177,

248
Nerves, Function of, 29, 30
Nerves, Origin of, 28, 29, 30
Nerve system. Evolution of, 50
Nerves of spinal cord, 27
New Structures, Origin of, 91, 92
Nose, Form of, 177, 178
Nose, Muscles of, 186

Olfactory nerves, 26, 208
Optic nerves, 26
Organ of Jacobson, 209
Ovum, 96

Palmistry, 197, 198
Parasitic foetus, 116, 117
Phrenology, 32, 183
Pigment, 173, 174, 175, 179
Pineal gland, 213
Pithecanthropus, 56, 249
Pituitary gland, 61
Platysma myoides, 188
Pleistocene period, 247, 248
Pliocene period, 249

Pygmy races, 66, 67

Hace caste, 181
Eadial artery, 10, 12, 13
Benal organs, 112
Eespiration, 19, 148, 241, 242

Sexual characters, 145, 146, 149
Sexual glands, Development of,

152, 153
Sexual glands. Secretions of, 63,

64, 155, 159, 161, 162
Size of body, 58
Skin,. 201, 202
Smell, 209

Speech centre, 30, 31
Spinal cord, 27
Stature, 54, 231
Supernumerary digits, 126
Supracondyloid process, 127
Supraorbital ridges, 177, 179
Sympathetic nerve system, 184
Syphilis, 52

Tail, 79, 80

Tail, Function of, 81

Teeth, 44, 133, 137, 150, 178, 233

Thumb, 195, 196

Thyroid gland, 16, 17, 63

Thyroid secretion, 205

Tibia, Changes in, 239

Tongue, 207

Tongue, Papillae of, 208

Twins, 113, 114, 115, 116

Twms, United, 117, 118

Uterus, 110, 111

Vestigial structures, 209-214
Viscera, Transposition of, 116
Voice, Breaking of, 160

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