20 THE DESCENT OF MAN. Part I. 



curred in the proportion of about 3 per cent, in upwards 

 of 600 bodies : he adds, that this muscle affords " an 

 " excellent illustration of the statement that occasional 

 " and rudimentary structures are especially liable to 

 " variation in arrangement." 



Some few persons have the power of contracting the 

 superficial muscles on their scalps ; and these muscles 

 are in a variable and partially rudimentary condition. 

 M. A. de Candolle has communicated to me a curious 

 instance of the long-continued persistence or inheritance 

 of this power, as well as of its unusual development. 

 He knows a family, in which one member, the present 

 head of a family, could, when a youth, pitch several 

 heavy books from his head by the movement of the 

 scalp alone ; and he won wagers by performing this feat. 

 His father, uncle, grandfather, and all his three chil- 

 dren possess the same power to the same unusual degree. 

 This family became divided eight generations ago into 

 two branches ; so that the head of the above-mentioned 

 branch is cousin in the seventh degree to the head of 

 the other branch. This distant cousin resides in another 

 part of France, and on being asked whether he possessed 

 the same faculty, immediately exhibited his power. 

 This case offers a good illustration how persistently an 

 absolutely useless faculty may be transmitted. 



The extrinsic muscles which serve to move the whole 

 external ear, and the intrinsic muscles which move the 

 different parts, all of which belong to the system of the 

 panniculus, are in a rudimentary condition in man ; they 

 are also variable in development, or at least in function. 

 I have seen one man who could draw his ears for- 

 wards, and another who could draw them backwards; 23 



23 Cabestrini quotes Hyrt. (' Annuario del]a Soc. dei Naturalisti,' 

 Modena, 1807, p. 97) to the same effect. 



