the arteries
run in arch-like branches, as if to carry the blood to branchiae which
are not present in the higher vertebrata, though the slits on the sides
of the neck still remain, marking their former position."

The heart is at first a simple pulsating vessel, like the heart of the
lowest fishes, and the excreta are voided through a common cloacal
passage--an anatomical feature so characteristic of the lower
vertebrata, that it occurs in no fully formed member of the mammalian
group, with the exception of the bird-like order of monotremata, which
takes its name from presenting so striking a peculiarity.

At a later period the human embryo is provided with a very conspicuous
tail, which is considerably longer than the rudimentary legs occurring
at that period of development, and which Professor Turner has found to
be provided with muscles--the extensor, which is so largely developed in
many animals, being especially well marked.

Again, as Mr. Darwin says, "In the embryos of all air-breathing
vertebrates, certain glands, called the corpora Wolffiana, correspond
with and act like the kidneys of mature fishes;" and during the sixth
month the whole body is covered very thickly with wool-like hair--even
the forehead and ears being closely coated; but it is, as Mr. Darwin
observes, "a significant fact that the palms of the hands and the soles
of the feet are quite naked, like the inferior surfaces of all four
extremities in most of the lower animals," including monkeys.

Lastly, Professor Wyman has found that in a human embryo about an inch
in length, "the great toe was shorter than the others; and, instead of
being parallel to them, projected at an angle from the side of the foot,
thus corresponding with the permanent condition of this part in the
quadrumana."[1]

Therefore, on the whole, we may conclude these brief remarks on
embryology with the words of Professor Huxley:--"Without question, the
mode of origin, and the early stages of the development of man, are
identical with those of the animals immediately below him in the scale;
without a doubt, in these respects he is far nearer to apes than the
apes are to the dog."[2]

[1] _Proc. Amer. Acad. Scs._, vol. iv., 1860, p. 17. It should be added,
however, that although the direction taken by the great toe of man at
this early age is doubtless, as Prof. Wyman states, more like that which
obtains in the quadrumana, there is a slight anatomical difference in
the mod