316 DR WALTER KIDD. 



of view. As it tends towards the lateral aspect it lies at first 

 at a right angle to the longitudinal axis of the body, and in the 

 lumbar region it maintains this direction closely. But in the 

 dorsal region it commences over the angles of the ribs to take 

 a curving direction with a gentle concavity towards the head, 

 and so it continues till it makes an angle of about 45° with 

 the vertebral column. Over the masses of muscle bordering the 

 vertebral furrow it takes a rather sharp curve in the opposite 

 direction, so that now the convexity is towards the head. In 

 the vertebral hollow it unites with the stream from the occiput 

 and continues to the coccyx, without interruption. At the 

 neural border of the axilla, the stream issuing therefrom is 

 found to take a similar direction over the scapula and deltoid 

 muscle, so that the hairs slope in the former region towards the 

 neck, and in the latter radiate first towards the coraco-clavicular 

 joint, then towards the shoulder joint, and the remaining por- 

 tion coalesces with the opposing stream from the ventral surface 

 which has wound round the upper arm. Voigt and Eschricht 

 figure the stream on the dorsal region of the fcetus as passing 

 at an angle of less than 45° to the vertebral column, before it 

 curves towards the caudal extremity, but the description here 

 given represents the facts as found in young adults and even in 

 very young children. In some adults the condition just de- 

 scribed is considerably exaggerated. 



There are thus two notable peculiarities in the regions men- 

 tioned. First, the parting of the streams which pass to the 

 ventral and neural aspect of the trunk ; secondhj, the general 

 tendency of the hair-streams to pass towards the cephalic rather 

 than towards the caudal extremity of the body in the dorsal 

 reo-ion Neither of these is normal in the Simian family as far as 

 my observations go, and the second is strikingly opposed to every 

 case examined. In every anthropoid ape or monkey examined 

 the general trend of hair-streams on the dorsal region is from 

 cephalic to caudal end, and no approach to the reversed direc- 

 tion, found in man, has been met with. The more near to the 

 erect position is the normal position of an ape or monkey the 

 more does the hair lie in the longitudinal axis on the trunk, 

 especially the dorsal region. In any higher mammal, such as a 

 horse or dog, the hair slopes on the dorsal region in a direction 



