twenty bodies where I have searched especially for it I have only found it a single time.'
"Holden gives its frequency of occurrence as once in eight or ten subjects, while Wilson, Quain, Cruoeilhier and others state in general terms that it is more frequently absent than present. Allen regards it as an accessory bundle to the great psoas. This may be true in the white but I hardly think it will hold true of the negro. The muscle is invariably fairly developed, with entirely separate and well defined points of attachment and having its own aponeurosis.
"I am inclined to regard the presence of this muscle in the colored race as a reversion toward the lower type of mammals, especially when taken in connection with other equally striking myological peculiarities and I trust that I may be able, by this note, to cause some one, whose opportunities will permit, to study carefully the comparative myology of the two races. From my own limited experience I am positive that a mine of information lies awaiting the explorer who shall uncover it and I hope that its treasures may soon be added to the literature of our science."
Darwin has said that "we have seen that the mental powers of the higher animals do not differ in kind, though greatly in degree, from the corresponding powers of man, especially of the lower and barbarous races; and it would appear that even their taste for the beautiful is not widely different from that of the Quadrumana. As the negro of Africa raises the flesh on his face into paralled ridges 'or cicatrices, high above the natural ' surface, which unsightly deformities, are considered great personal attractions;" [1]— as
- ↑ Sir Samuel Baker, "The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia" 1867.
