138 DARWINISM STATED BY DARWIN HIMSELF. 



Pace 12 Rudiments of various muscles have been 



observed in many parts of the human body ; 

 and not a few muscles which are regularly present in 

 some of the lower animals can occasionally be detected in 

 man in a greatly reduced condition. Every one must 

 have noticed the power which many animals, especially 

 horses, possess of moving or twitching their skin ; and 

 this is effected by the panniculus carnosus. Eemnants 

 of this muscle in an efficient state are found in various 

 parts of our bodies : for instance, the muscle on the fore- 

 head, by which the eyebrows are raised. 



Pa«e 13 Some few persons have the power of con- 



tracting the superficial muscles on their scalps ; 

 and these muscles are in a variable and partially rudiment- 

 ary condition. M. A. de Candolle has communicated 

 to me a curious instance of the long-continued persistence 

 or inheritance of this power, as well as of its unusual 

 development. He knows a family in which one member, 

 the present head of the family, could, when a youth, 

 pitch several heavy books from his head by the movement 

 of the scalp alone ; and he won wagers by performing 

 this feat. His father, uncle, grandfather, and his three 

 children possess the same power to the same unusual de- 

 gree. This family became divided eight generations ago 

 into two branches ; so that the head of the above-men- 

 tioned branch is cousin in the seventh degree to the head 

 of the other branch. This distant cousin resides in an- 

 other part of France ; and, on being asked whether he 

 possessed the same faculty, immediately exhibited his 

 power. This case offers a good illustration how persist- 

 ent may be the transmission of an absolutely useless 

 faculty, probably derived from our remote semi-human 

 progenitors, since many monkeys have, and frequently 



