i860 1882] DESCENT OF MAN 39 



is nothing in the notion. I have included the down on the Letter 408 

 human body and the lanugo on the foetus as a rudimentary 

 representation of a hairy coat. 1 I do not know whether there 

 is any direct functional connection between the presence of 

 hair and the panniculus carnosus 2 (to put the question under 

 another point of view, is it the primary or aboriginal function 

 of the panniculus to move the dermal appendages or the 

 skin itself?) ; but both are superficial, and would perhaps 

 together become rudimentary. I was led to think of this 

 by the places (as far as my ignorance of anatomy has allowed 

 me to judge) of the rudimentary muscular fasciculi which you 

 specify. Now, some persons can move the skin of their hairy 

 heads ; and is this not effected by the panniculus ? How is 

 it with the eyebrows ? You specify the axillae and the front 

 region of the chest and lower part of scapulae : now, these are 

 all hairy spots in man. On the other hand, the neck, and as 

 I suppose the covering of the gluteus medius, are not hairy ; 

 so, as I said, I presume there is nothing in this notion. If 

 there were, the rudiments of the panniculus ought perhaps to 

 occur more plainly in man than in woman. . . . 



P.S - -If the skin on the head is moved by the panniculus, 

 I think I ought just to allude to it as some men alone having 

 power to move the skin shows that the apparatus is generally 

 rudimentary. 



In March 1869 Darwin wrote to Mr. Wallace : " I shall be intensely 

 curious to read the Quarterly. I hope you have not murdered too 

 completely your own and my child." The reference is to Mr. Wallace's 

 review, in the April number of the Quarterly, of Lyell's Principles of 

 Geology (tenth edition), and of the sixth edition of the Elements of 

 Geology. Mr. Wallace points out that here for the first time Sir C. 

 Lyell gave up his opposition to evolution ; and this leads Mr. Wallace 

 to give a short account of the views set forth in the Origin of Species. 

 In this article Mr. Wallace makes a definite statement as to his views 

 on the evolution of man, which were opposed to those of Mr. Darwin. 

 He upholds the view that the brain of man, as well as the organs of 

 speech, the hand and the external form, could not have been evolved by 

 Natural Selection (the child he is supposed to murder). At p. 391 he 



1 Descent of Man I., p. 25 ; II., p. 375. 



2 Professor Macalister draws our attention to the fact that Mr. 

 Darwin uses the term panniculus in the generalised sense of any 

 sheet of muscle acting on the skin. 



