23 



clothed with hairs pointine^ towards this taft. The child was a 

 fair-skinned infant with very dark brown hair. 



My observations of foetal ears have so far been inconclusive. 

 Of some the epidermis seems imperfectly developed and is hairless. 

 In no case are very small hairs easily observed whilst the subject 

 is immersed, and when removed from the spirit the lanugo clings 

 to moist skin and it is difficult to determine the direction of its 

 natural growth. 



The Darwin's Point was not well marked, or indeed deter- 

 minable, upon most of the foetal ears which I have examined ; 

 but no stress need be laid upon this, as this feature is very 

 variable and frequently absent, as is well-known. One foetal ear 

 was remarkable for having Darwin's Point directed backwards 

 (the helix being unfolded as in Monkeys), and this point was 

 tufted with small pale yellow hairs. This is a specimen in spirit 

 in the Oxford University Museum. 



In life this infantile growth is soon shed, but in later middle 

 age, a hairy covering sometimes reappears and may be noticed in 

 black-haired men of coarse skin and hirsute habit of body more 

 frequently than in others, although I have recently observed the 

 ears of a man of about forty, fresh complexioned, dark red 

 moustache, pale red hair, which exhibited almost all the phe- 

 nomena I have described. The hairs, which were straw-coloured 

 aud very numerous, grew thickly upon the backs of the ears, 

 fringed the edges of the helix, and had well-marked lines of 

 growth. 



The majority of ears, whether of adults or of children other 

 than infants, show no hairs, or where a weak and straggling 

 growth has persisted in spite of constant friction and depilatory 

 influences, there is seldom any visible direction or "set" traceable. 



In the hope of discovering the law of growth followed by these 

 hairs the ears of various Apes and Monkeys have been examined. 



Troglodytes niger. — The ears of young Chimpanzees in the 

 Zoological Gardens, have no indications of any point, a very few 

 small hairs upon the upper fold and a few more upon the lower 

 edge directed towards one another as is usual. Backs almost 

 hairless. 



An ear in spirit in the Oxford University Museum showed no 

 rudimentary point and bore a few fine airs upon the upper fold 

 only; direction as usual. I could not examine the back. 



The ears of a gorilla in the same museum showed some faint 

 indication of a point towards which the small hairs were directed. 

 In the immediate neighbourhood of what I took to be the rudi- 

 mentary point the hairs were fewest and their direction most 



