312 DR WALTER KIDD. 



in the Normal direction, and the other half will assume the 

 Exceptional direction and pass to the middle line. The Excep- 

 tional type is a departure which is shown by the central and 

 lateral portions of the occipital stream, instead of diverging as 

 they descend, converging sharply to the middle hue, forming 

 with the vertical portion one united stream, so that the portions 

 of this stream passing the mastoid region become as sharply 

 directed to the middle line as these in the Normal type are 

 directed from it. These different types are well known to hair- 

 dressers, and are very simple in their arrangement. Singularly 

 the figures of Eschricht and Voigt each give only one of these 

 arrangements, as if that was the normal one, a conclusion which 

 might easily be arrived at from the examination of a few foetuses. 

 The discrepancy is accounted for by examining a considerable 

 number of adults, especially those whose hair is cut short. I 

 examined 627 cases for this purpose, and found that 306 pre- 

 sented the Normal and 321 the Exceptional type; of these, 47 

 were females, and 24 showed the Normal and 23 the Excep- 

 tional type. I should say that among English persons, at any 

 rate, from a much larger general study of the matter than these 

 627 cases, this difference fairly represents the proportion of the 

 two types. These terms Normal and Exceptional have been 

 employed because, on the view of man's descent from a Simian 

 stock, the so-called Normal type would be the one he would 

 inherit. It is remarkable how uniform this type is among all 

 the anthropoid apes and monkeys, living and dead, that I have 

 examined. In not a single case have I been able to find the 

 Exceptional type. 



As to the interpretation of these two types, one may say at 

 first that a single case such as this militates strongly against 

 the theory of Voigt as to the production of the slope of hair, in 

 this region at any rate ; and similar other cases will appear in 

 other regions. I would submit that the remarkable ditference 

 of type found here, and which lasts throughout life, being less 

 marked in infancy than later, is due to the inherited effect 

 through numerous generations of the method adopted in dress- 

 ing the hair. There must have been a time when neither 

 primitive man nor woman dressed their hair at all. Again, in 

 later times, with increasing attempts at culture, the women 



I 



