ANATOMICAL STRUCTURE OF ANTHROPOID APES. 93 



Fig. 28. — Human ear. 



easily discovered. This point may also be perceived 

 in the ears of anthropoids, and especially in those of 

 the orang-utan. Meyer has at- 

 tempted to show that this Dar- 

 winian pointed tip is only due to 

 the abortive development of part 

 of the helix, and in this case we 

 should not regard the occurrence 

 as an ape-like pointing of the 

 helix, but rather as its partial 

 interruption owing to the patho- 

 logical condition of that organ.* 

 In a later edition of his work, 

 Darwin admits, in reply to Meyer, 

 that this explanation may apply 

 to many cases in which there 

 are several very small points, or when the whole of 

 the helix is sinuate. In one case, photographed by 

 Darwin, the prominence was so large -that, if we were 

 to assume with Meyer that the ear would have been 

 normal if the cartilage had been uniformly developed 

 along the whole extent of the helix, the latter must 

 have occupied a third part of the ear. Two cases 

 were mentioned to Darwin in which the upper edge 

 of the ear had no inner fold, and was so pointed 

 that it was very like that of an ordinary mammal. 

 The ear of the foetus of an orang given in Darwin's 

 illustration appears to be pointed, although in the 

 adult animal that organ is very like the human ear. 

 The Darwinian tip may also be seen in the foetus of 

 an orang described and illustrated by Salvatore 



* Virchow's Archiv. fiir Pathologisehe Anatomie, liii. 485 : 1871. 



