function is concerned, be considered as rudimentary. In every large
collection of human skulls some may be found, as Haeckel (43.
Generelle Morphologie, 1866, B. ii. s. clv.) observes, with the
canine teeth projecting considerably beyond the others in the same
manner as in the anthropomorphous apes, but in a less degree. In these
cases, open spaces between the teeth in the one jaw are left for the
reception of the canines of the opposite jaw. An inter-space of this
kind in a Kaffir skull, figured by Wagner, is surprisingly wide. (44.
Carl Vogt s Lectures on Man, Eng. translat., 1864, p. 151.)
Considering how few are the ancient skulls which have been examined,
compared to recent skulls, it is an interesting fact that in at least
three cases the canines project largely; and in the Naulette jaw they
are spoken of as enormous. (45. C. Carter Blake, on a jaw from La
Naulette, Anthropological Review, 1867, p. 295. Schaaffhausen, ibid.
1868, p. 426.)
Of the anthropomorphous apes the males alone have their canines fully
developed; but in the female gorilla, and in a less degree in the
female orang, these teeth project considerably beyond the others;
therefore the fact, of which I have been assured, that women sometimes
have considerably projecting canines, is no serious objection to the
belief that their occasional great development in man is a case of
reversion to an ape-like progenitor. He who rejects with scorn the
belief that the shape of his own canines, and their occasional great
development in other men, are due to our early forefathers having been
provided with these formidable weapons, will probably reveal, by
sneering, the line of his descent. For though he no longer intends, nor
has the power, to use these teeth as weapons, he will unconsciously
retract his snarling muscles (thus named by Sir C. Bell) (46. The
Anatomy of Expression, 1844, pp. 110, 131.), so as to expose them ready
for action, like a dog prepared to fight.
Many muscles are occasionally developed in man, which are proper to the
Quadrumana or other mammals. Professor Vlacovich (47. Quoted by Prof.
Canestrini in the Annuario della Soc. dei Naturalisti, 1867, p. 90.)
examined forty male subjects, and found a muscle, called by him the
ischio-pubic, in nineteen of them; in three others there was a ligament
which represented this muscle; and in the remaining eighteen no trace
of it. In only two out of thirty female subjects was this muscle
developed on both sides, but in three others the rudimentary ligament
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