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Show 1897.] OE HAIR UPON THE HUMAN EAR. 301 From the terms of the foregoing it may be assumed that Mr. Darwin recognized the significance of this discovery and was conscious of the hiatus in the structure of his theory into which this little fragment of corroborative fact could be fitted. Beyond their scientific interest these letters have an ethical value of their own, revealing the generous courtesy to a stranger and theplasti • receptivity of mind in extreme old age that we must ever associate wdth the greatest iutellecf among tbe moderns. Thus encouraged by Mr. Darwin I have for the past sixteen years observed tbe ears of infants aud induced others to do so. M y attention was drawn to an interesting paper, published by an Italian, Gr. Ohiarugi1, about leu years ago (catalogued in Euglaud in 1889), but which has received so little attention, either here or on the Contiuent, that Wiedersheim2 does not allude to the subject. Signor Chiarugi's paper is a three-page pamphlet of which only the concluding forty-five lines relate to the subject under discussion. The following is a free translation :- " It is not then because good reasons are wanting [to support Darwin s view of the origin of the " point."-H. M. W.~\ that I have decided to indicate a n e w character which attests the significance attributed by Darwin to the tubercle of the helix, but because the fact is such that it might by itself indeed cut short all discussion. " The external ear (padlgllone) is provided with rudimentary hairs, which in the adult are very fine and pale and which creep sometimes into the hollowr of the auditory cavity, which claim no attention at all; but in the foetus and in the baby at birth, and for a certain time after, they are fairly long, numerous, and frequently pigmented. "Their direction differs in different parts of the external ear. O n the outer surface they have in general an ascending direction, somewhat varied here aud there by the varying curvatures of the ear. " Tbey preserve such a direction near the outside margin, upon which along the first third [of Its length.-77. M. W.~\ starting from the front (upper margin) they turn their points downwards; along the other two-thirds (hinder margin) they turn their points directly upwards. " Upon the internal surface3 of the outer ear (padlgllone) the hairs (pell), continuing the direction of the hairs (capelli) growing upon the adjacent hairy scalp, incline downwards. You 1 " II Tubercolo di Darwin e la Direzione dei Peli nel Padiglione dell' Orecchio umano." Estratto dal Bollettino della Sezione dei Cultori delle Scienze mediche nella R. Universita dei Fisiocritici di Siena: Anno vi. fasc. ii. (1889?). 2 ' Structure of Man,' Wiedersheim. Macmillan, 1895. 3 The context shows that Signor Chiarugi means the back of the ear, i. c., the 'surface next the head.-H. M . W . |