appendage is long and convoluted: in man it arises from the end of the
short caecum, and is commonly from four to five inches in length, being
only about the third of an inch in diameter. Not only is it useless, but
it is sometimes the cause of death, of which fact I have lately heard two
instances: this is due to small hard bodies, such as seeds, entering the
passage, and causing inflammation. (48. M. C. Martins ("De l'Unite
Organique," in 'Revue des Deux Mondes,' June 15, 1862, p. 16) and Haeckel
('Generelle Morphologie,' B. ii. s. 278), have both remarked on the
singular fact of this rudiment sometimes causing death.)

In some of the lower Quadrumana, in the Lemuridae and Carnivora, as well as
in many marsupials, there is a passage near the lower end of the humerus,
called the supra-condyloid foramen, through which the great nerve of the
fore limb and often the great artery pass. Now in the humerus of man,
there is generally a trace of this passage, which is sometimes fairly well
developed, being formed by a depending hook-like process of bone, completed
by a band of ligament. Dr. Struthers (49. With respect to inheritance,
see Dr. Struthers in the 'Lancet,' Feb. 15, 1873, and another important
paper, ibid. Jan. 24, 1863, p. 83. Dr. Knox, as I am informed, was the
first anatomist who drew attention to this peculiar structure in man; see
his 'Great Artists and Anatomists,' p. 63. See also an important memoir on
this process by Dr. Gruber, in the 'Bulletin de l'Acad. Imp. de St.
Petersbourg,' tom. xii. 1867, p. 448.), who has closely attended to the
subject, has now shewn that this peculiarity is sometimes inherited, as it
has occurred in a father, and in no less than four out of his seven
children. When present, the great nerve invariably passes through it; and
this clearly indicates that it is the homologue and rudiment of the
supra-condyloid foramen of the lower animals. Prof. Turner estimates, as
he informs me, that it occurs in about one per cent. of recent skeletons.
But if the occasional development of this structure in man is, as seems