Chap. I. Rudiments. 1 3 



regularly present in some of the lower animals can occasionally 

 be detected in man in a greatly reduced condition. Every one 

 must have noticed the power which many animals, especially 

 horses, possess of moving or twitching their skin; and this is 

 effected by the panniculus camosfis. Eemnants of this muscle 

 in an efficient state are found in various parts of our bodies ; for 

 instance, the muscle on the forehead, by which the eyebrows are 

 raised. The plalysma my ides, which is well developed on the 

 neck, belongs to this system. Prof. Turner, of Edinburgh, has 

 occasionally detected, as he informs me, muscular fasciculi in 

 five different situations, namely in the axillae, near the scapulae, 

 &c, all of which must be referred to the system of the panni- 

 cuhts. He has also shewn 26 that the musculus sternalis or sternalis 

 brutorum, which is not an extension of the rectus abdominalis, 

 but is closely allied to the pcmniculus, occurred in the proportion 

 of about three 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 super- 

 ficial 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 the 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 his three children 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 persistent may be the transmission of an 

 absolutely useless faculty, probably derived from our remote semi- 

 human progenitors ; since many monkeys have, and frequently 

 use the power, of largely moving their scalps up and down. 27 



The extrinsic muscles which serve to move the external ear, 

 and the intrinsic muscles which move the different parts, are in a 

 rudimentary condition in man, and they all belong to the system 



,8 Prof. W. Turner, ' Proc. Royal Emotions in Man and Animals, ' 

 Soc. Edinburgh,' 1866-67, p. 65. 1872, p. 144. 



27 See my ' Expression of the 



