24 



indefinite. The hairs upon the folded margin of the helix curled 

 inwards as in the human ear and the few stronger and darker 

 hairs upon the back of the upper ear pointed towards the edge. 



Gynocephaliis albigularis. — Is bluntly pointed and plentifully 

 fringed ; the hairs cross tips at the point. Back of ear nude. 



C. petaurista. — Distinct, sharp, nude point ; fringe of hairs 

 directed to it. Short curving hairs upon the back, such as one 

 finds upon the back of a baby's ear. 



G. lalandii, Juv. — Less hairy, same general characters. Tiny 

 tuft of darker hairs at the tip, and a few on back of ear point 

 towards the tip. 



Monkey, sp.? — Ear fringed with converging growths. Point 

 definite and tufted with slightly longer hair. 



Aye- Aye {Cheiromys). — A simple bestial ear, not quadru- 

 manous in character, almost naked, sparsely clothed inside with 

 fine black hair directed to the tip,outside coarser and fewer black 

 hairs tipped with white are similarly directed. No fringe or tuffe ; 

 no point. Root of ear {concha ?) thickly clothed with divergent 

 hairs pointing fanwise towards the circumference of the ear. 



Whilst contemplating a series of forms such as these it is 

 possible to follow in imagination the progressive degradation of 

 the external ear from a condition in which it was mobile and of 

 the utmost importance to its possessor to a state in which it 

 ceases to be functional. 



The presumably conspicuous leaf-shaped organ of some common 

 ancestor of the Aye-Aye, the Lemurs, and ourselves has dwindled 

 to a mere crumpled excrescence in the Gibbon, sans lobe, sans 

 point, sans hair, sans everything ! 



An ordinary human ear occupies an intermediate position, 

 although variations in the direction of a simian type may be found 

 in which the helix, or lobe, or both are wanting, whilst others 

 show a pithecine cusp directed laterally or even backwards. 



The testimony of the convergent hairs to the origin of the cusp 

 is so confirmatory of the view enunciated by Darwin that from 

 henceforth the fact of our ancestors having had pointed ears may 

 be regarded as established. 



Is it possible from the phenomena under discussion to deduce 

 anything as to the shape, position, and movements of the ancestral 

 ear ? 



As to shape, it seems unlikely that the ear was obtusely 

 pointed as in Loris and Gynocephalus, for had not the point been 

 originally at least as sharp as it is in Macacus it would hardly 

 have persisted until now. 



As to position and mobility : was the ear pressed as closely 



