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Show 298 MR. H. M. WALLIS ON THE G R O W T H Mar. 2, On the Growth of Hair upon the Human Ear, and its Testimony to the Shape, Size, and Position of the Ancestral Organ1. By H. M . WALLIS. [Received January 23, 1897.] (Plates XIX.-XXII.) CONTENTS. i. Literature of the Subject ii. Ears of Infants iii. Ears of Adults iv. Ears of Quadrumana v. Shape, Position, and Movements of the Ancestral Ear vi. Summary i. Literature of the Subject. In 1871, Darwin called attention to the cusp sometimes seen upon the folded edge of the human ear and suggested that this feature was a survival of the pointed tip which terminated the ear of our remote ancestor 2 (see figure, p. 299). The hypothesis was ingenious, but less convincing than many of the bold and splendid deductions of our great philosopher. Support from corroborative phenomena was needed, but none was forthcoming. Indeed, had this identification stood alone, it w:ould hardly have commanded acceptance ; but making its appearance in good company amidst a phalanx of marshalled facts, which there was no gainsaying, it obtained an amount of credence which was scarcely deserved. In Germany, Ludwig Meyer3 and, more recently, C. Langer4 have thrown doubt upon Darwin's interpretation of the cusp in question. But although this cusp is sometimes triple, frequently double, and still more frequently absent altogether-variations which, to say the least, do not uphold Darwin's view--the current of intellectual opinion has borne the Theory of Natural Selection into favour and this item has travelled with the rest. Although for nearly a generation no fresh light has been thrown upon this particular question, yet for years past the cusp has been labelled "Darwin's Point" upon diagrams and museum preparations ; the correctness of his identification has been generally assumed and the matter treated as settled. This, however, was not Darwin's opinion, as will presently appear. In July 1879 my attention was drawn to the ears of a new- 1 Communicated by Prof. E, B. POULTON, F.R.S. 2 ' Descent of Man,' 1871, i. p. 22. 3 Ludwig Meyer, ' Leber das Darwin'sche Spitzohr,' Berlin, 1871. 4 C. Langer, " Leber Form und Lageverhaltnisse des Ohres," Mit. d. anthropol. Gesellsch. in Wien, xii. 1882. Page 298 302 304 305 306 309 |