22 



constant adherence to certain lines — both on the back of the 

 concha, where the hairs are directed backwards and downwards 

 (as may be seen by reference to Fig. 3) ; and upon the back of 

 the helix and anti-helix, where the lines of growth followed by 

 the hair, though in my expei-ience constant (when hair is present 

 at all)j are apparently capricious, a question to be dealt with 

 presently. 



Fig. 3 shows the back of an infant's ear enlarged. The 

 tract immediately around Darwin's Point, or where Darwin's 

 Point is to be expected (for it is not always present), is bare. 

 Those parts of the helix which are above the bare tract are clothed 

 back and front with hairs directed towards Darwin's Point, whilst 

 the hairs upon the back of the anti-helix separate themselves from 

 those upon the back of the concha, which are directed downwards 

 towards the lobe, and executing a countermarch, as one might 

 say, come curving round the infolded rim of the helix below 

 Darwin's Point, directing their growth towards it until their tips 

 meet and touch those of the hairs approaching from above. 



The significance of this countermarch or reversal of direction 

 it is proposed to discuss later in this paper. 



The opposing growths of hairs do not approach one another 

 from directly opposite directions ; they cross one another's paths 

 diagonally, as though seeking something which was once there, 

 but which no longer exists. 



On many infant ears Darwin's Point is not sufficiently pro- 

 nounced to unable its precise locality to be determined. Its 

 position varies much in my experience, and the tract around it, 

 or its presumed site, is very frequently bare, as already remarked. 

 In short, the external infant ear is a very variable organ, but 

 whenever hair is present it seems to follow the above-described 

 lines, although it may be almost invisible and need a dark card 

 to be placed between the ear and head and the use of a lens to 

 discover the hairs. 



I have observed a case where an infant's ear shewed Dar- 

 win's Point well, and the small white tubercle beneath the skin 

 was marked by a minute tuft of down. The ear drawn in fig. 1 

 was so noticeable that the child's mother, a woman in humble 

 circumstances, was struck by its appearance and sent for me to 

 see it. Where the two streams of hairs met the hairs were longest, 

 a distinct tuft of hairs twisted upon one another came partly from 

 behind the ear and partly from the fold of the helix and projected 

 laterally at right angles to the median line of the body from one- 

 eighth to one-quarter of an inch. The spina helicis was thickly 



